Social life-cycle assessment of municipal solid waste management: A case study of citizen social performance in a southeastern Brazilian municipality

This study provides a social life-cycle assessment (S-LCA) of municipal solid waste management to evaluate citizen engagement in a southeastern Brazilian municipality. S-LCA followed UNEP/SETAC guidelines, including 3 social impact categories, 6 subcategories, and 13 indicators. Primary data were collected by means of a questionnaire which resulted in 413 valid responses. The results are expressed as normalized, dimensionless social performance indices on a scale of 0–1, where scores <0.5, equal to 0.5, and >0.5 indicate low, intermediate, and satisfactory performances, respectively. The analysis revealed weaknesses in transparency (0.099), driven mainly by lack of citizens’ knowledge regarding recycling and waste destination. Community satisfaction had an intermediate performance (0.382), reflecting inconsistent recyclable waste collection services. Responsibility for waste generation had also an intermediate score (0.561), but the practice of materials donation had a high score (0.884). Access to services achieved a satisfactory performance (0.829), showing availability but not necessarily user satisfaction. Governance scored 0.447, with partial effectiveness of public commitments to sustainability (0.540) and low knowledge about the municipal waste plan (0.353). Beyond confirming known transparency deficits, the findings reveal that high operational infrastructure coverage does not guarantee social satisfaction or system legitimacy without participatory governance and environmental education.