Despite environmental regulations in Ecuador, particularly in the Province of Azuay, the solid waste final disposal management is still a socio-environmental problem, worsened by weak governance processes. The province has three sanitary landfills with almost expired service lives. The site selection was based on circumstantial reasons, which makes landfills more likely to cause environmental pollution and, therefore, have negative implications for public health. The largest landfill serves Cuenca and also leases service to other small cities. The remaining two are small and, accordingly, have limited technology and fewer resources. In this context, the main aim of this study is to evaluate the terrain of the province to find the most suitable area for landfill siting. A multi-criteria decision analysis, integrated with a geographical information system and analytical hierarchy process methodology, was conducted. Fourteen factors and seven constraints were simultaneously analysed, divided into technical, environmental, social, and economic categories; 15 of these criteria were from the Ecuadorian Unified Text of the Secondary Legislation of the Environmental Ministry. According to the results, 76.17% of the territory is not suitable for landfill implementation, and the unrestricted area represents the remaining 23.83%. The highest landfill suitability index (70–81%) is located in the south of the province in Santa Isabel, Oña, and Nabón cantons, which are dry and clay-rich areas.

To guarantee a dignified life in low-incoming countries where socio-environmental negative implications derived from the municipal solid waste (MSW) by its excessive generation, lack of governance, and financial resources, sustainable and integrated solutions are required. From this perspective, well-located transfer stations (TSs) are conceived as an alternative to improve MSW management quality in municipalities that generate little MSW and have long transportation distances. Consequently, this research aims to find optimum areas to locate TSs in the province of Azuay-Ecuador as a commonwealth proposal. It applies a multi-criteria decision analysis based on geographic information systems with the analytical hierarchical process technique: a heuristic and scalable method that simultaneously evaluates subjective and non-monetized inputs. The authors faced it from a holistic perspective in a three-level hierarchical structure; starting from categories: technical, environmental, economic, and social; then criteria: rivers, protected areas, populated areas, land use, educational centers, health centers, tourist sites, basic services, roads, gravity centers, geology, power grid, and slopes; and finally, sub-criteria defined by criteria´s measurable attributes. This research provides local decision-makers with middle-scale tools and a first diagnosis to focus later efforts in local studios over potential sites. The results showed that 79.12% of the study area was restrictive to place a TS. The remaining territory suitability index values between 13 and 89% were found, with possible TSs at Paute, Sigsig, and Nabón to serve nine from fifteen cantons.