<p>Population growth, economic expansion, urbanization, and evolving consumer habits are driving a significant increase in municipal solid waste generation, placing Bangladesh under immense societal pressure to manage and dispose of this waste effectively. Numerous studies have examined municipal solid waste management practices in Bangladesh, yet the potential for utilizing the generated energy to charge electric vehicles (EVs) remains unexplored. Therefore, in this study, waste-to-energy technologies such as landfill gas recovery (LGR), incineration (INC) and anaerobic digestion (AD) were assessed for energy recovery, economic feasibility, and global warming potential in Rajshahi City Corporation, Bangladesh, to meet the extra electricity demand imposed due to the usage of EVs in the city. According to the analysis, INC emerges as the most promising technology in terms of energy output and financial viability, given its low capital cost, high net present value, and a break-even period of 3.76&#xa0;years. The incineration of solid waste has the potential to generate 187.04 GWh electricity annually with a GWP of 17,400 <InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">\({\text{tCO}}_{2}\)</EquationSource> <EquationSource Format="MATHML"><math> <msub> <mtext>tCO</mtext> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </math></EquationSource> </InlineEquation>/year. INC's levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is 95.2% lower than LGR's and 249.4% lower than AD, while LGR's LCOE is 79.0% lower than AD. INC has also the highest NPV of $222 million compared to the other strategies. Among the three technologies, INC and AD are the most promising for the study area. Moreover, these two technologies can successfully fulfill the EV power demand of the city corporation area, providing surpluses of 102.36 GWh and 83.06 GWh, respectively. The sustainability of continuous electricity production at low energy costs and high revenue potential suggests adopting incineration-based plants in commercial scale.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>