This study is an economic analysis of the production chain consisting of residual urban waste (RUW) treatment in mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) plants for the production of streams of materials such as Secondary Solid Fuels (SSFs) or dry fractions the energy potential of which can be exploited in waste-to-energy plants for recovering electrical and thermal energy or industrial co-burning plants (cement plants or thermal power plants) as a substitute for fossil fuels.

The analysis focuses on Italy and primarily refers to 2015. The Life Cycle Costing (LCC) analysis methodology was applied which allowed us to estimate the total treatment costs according to the type of plant and the destination of output streams and make some considerations regarding the most economically advantageous alternative. The study was based on primary data acquired from a number of plants operating in Italy in 2015, and allowed us to highlight the characteristics and critical issues that distinguish the two main types of MBT plants (single-stream or separate-stream MBT plants) and the different output streams generated by MBT plants.

Since the analysis was set up as an Environmental LCC analysis, the results obtained could be integrated with those of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the same system, so as to obtain both an economic assessment and a picture of the environmental impacts of the system.