The increasing generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) and the need for sustainable waste management alternatives have made Waste-to-Energy (WtE) technology a promising solution through energy recovery from waste. In this context, the present study aimed to investigate optimization methods for thermodynamic cycles applied to the incineration of municipal solid waste, including energy, exergy, and environmental analyses. A computational routine was developed in Microsoft Excel to calculate the thermodynamic properties of water and steam based on the IAPWS-IF97 formulation, which was validated through comparisons with standard thermodynamic tables and results reported in the literature. These automated calculations facilitated the modeling of a Rankine cycle fueled by MSW incineration, which was further integrated with a gas turbine design based on the operating parameters of commercial power generation turbines. The simulation results were analyzed using a Design of Experiments approach based on Response Surface Methodology (RSM), enabling the identification of operating conditions that optimize the performance of each cycle configuration. Hybrid cycle configurations were developed, achieving thermal efficiencies of up to 30.4 per cent, outperforming conventional Waste-to-Energy systems.