The COVID-19 pandemic attracts concerns globally and leads to an exponential increase in medical waste generation, and disposal of medical waste is an urgent need for preventing the epidemic spread . Emergency disposal scenarios of medical waste generated during the COVID-19 pandemic require a systematic assessment to quantify their potential environmental impacts . The environmental impacts and key factors of three movable disposal scenarios (i.e . incineration disposal vehicle, movable steam and microwave sterilization equipment both followed by co-incineration with municipal solid waste) were quantified via life cycle assessment approach . Furthermore, the environmental impacts of three movable disposal and two co-incineration scenarios were compared via life cycle assessment by expanding system boundaries . The results show that co-incineration with municipal solid waste has the lowest environmental impacts due to environmental benefits produced by power generation, while co-incineration with hazardous waste is the highest due to the high energy consumption . Energy consumption (i.e . kerosene, electricity and diesel) are the key factors for three movable disposal scenarios . For movable steam and microwave sterilization equipment followed by co-incineration with municipal solid waste, power generation from incinerating disinfected medical waste has significant beneficial environmental impacts due to avoided impacts of electricity consumption . The recommendations for improvement of the emergency disposal and management of medical waste during the COVID-19 pandemic globally and other serious epidemic in the future are provided.