Resolutions of conflicts within an economic–environmental system are challenges that engineers often face, since they are expected to provide the decision-makers with the trade-offs involved among the various levels of the waste generating economic activities, the resulting environmental quality, and spending for attaining it. This paper presents a methodology for resolving such conflicts. The methodology is based on a waste management network model which allows for an efficient and systematic search among the possible waste management systems linking generated wastes with the environment, and also for their evaluation on the basis of the balance of their burdens on the various environmental forms and the operating budget. Recycling, discharge and effluent standards, charges, damage costs, and various budgeting schemes can be handled. Dynamic analyses for long-range financial planning under an expected increasing rate of waste generation are possible. For a simple hypothetical case, the model is set up, available data are reduced to usable forms', and trade-off curves are obtained through simulation analysis.