Precisely similar to the Human Health damage category, the composting process was also found as the main cause of high adverse effect on the Ecosystem Quality damage category (Fig. 11). This was ascribed to the high values of Terrestrial acid/nutrient mid-point category. Again similar to the Human Health damage category, the composting process seemed not suitable to be combined with the incineration process for its major adverse effect on the Ecosystem Quality damage category. In view of the positive effects of each process i.e. sorting, landfilling, incineration, AD and composting on the Ecosystem Quality damage category, sorting process was found to be the only process which significantly reduced the impacts on this damage category due to avoided emissions originating from the recovery of the materials mentioned.