The National Association of Heating, Plumbing and Cooling Contractors commissioned a life-cycle comparison of five engineered systems for managing food waste: sending food waste through a disposal to a wastewater treatment plant; collecting food waste with municipal solid waste and then sending it to a landfill, a community compost facility or a central incineration facility; and sending food waste through a disposal to a septic system. The study considered the required land, total system energy, total system materials, total emissions and system costs for each method.