More than 100 million tonnes of municipal solid waste are incinerated worldwide every year 1 . However, little is known about the fate of nanomaterials during incineration, even though the presence of engineered nanoparticles in waste is expected to grow 2 . Here, we show that cerium oxide nanoparticles introduced into a full-scale waste incineration plant bind loosely to solid residues from the combustion process and can be efficiently removed from flue gas using current filter technology. The nanoparticles were introduced either directly onto the waste before incineration or into the gas stream exiting the furnace of an incinerator that processes 200,000 tonnes of waste per year. Nanoparticles that attached to the surface of the solid residues did not become a fixed part of the residues and did not demonstrate any physical or chemical changes. Our observations show that although it is possible to incinerate waste without releasing nanoparticles into the atmosphere, the residues to which they bind eventually end up in landfills or recovered raw materials, confirming that there is a clear environmental need to develop degradable nanoparticles.The amount of consumer goods containing engineered nanomaterials is expected to grow 2 , and the disposal of these products represents an increasing proportion of the over one billion metric tonnes of municipal solid waste disposed globally 1 . Although landfilling is still common practice in many countries, thermal waste treatment is becoming an important alternative. For example, China plans to expand its capacity for waste incineration from 3% in 2011 to 30% by 2020 (refs 3,4), and the European Commission has been phasing out the landfill of biodegradable waste through legislation 5 . These efforts aim to minimize the amount of untreated landfill waste.Engineered nanoparticles are often designed to be evenly distributed, insoluble and stable when incorporated into consumer goods. However, these characteristics can pose problems when the nanoparticles enter the natural environment 6 . For example, the use of persistent chemicals such as fluoro-chloro-hydrocarbons in fridges has depleted the stratospheric ozone layer 7 , and the use of fibrous solids such as asbestos in building materials has resulted in high incidences of mesothelioma 8 . Furthermore, the widespread use of insecticides has seen various fluorinated compounds, dioxins and halogenated biphenyl compounds accumulate in the food web 9 . It is expected that exposure of the biosphere to persistent nanoparticles may also result in similar undesirable outcomes, so the best precautionary measure is to limit their presence and residence time in the environment. This means that there is a need for proper disposal of persistent nanoparticles.With the growing interest in using persistent nanomaterials in products, we need information on the extent to which they are modified and later made bioavailable through incineration. Nanowaste is treated directly or indirectly. For instance, wastewater treatment plants efficiently...

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Wetlands are complex ecosystems that harbor a large diversity of species. Wetlands are among the most threatened ecosystems on our planet, due to human influences such as conversion and drainage. We assessed impacts from water consumption on the species richness of waterbirds, nonresidential birds, water-dependent mammals, reptiles and amphibians in wetlands, considering a larger number of taxa than previous life cycle impact assessment methods. Effect factors (EF) were derived for 1184 wetlands of international importance. EFs quantify the number of global species-equivalents lost per m2 of wetland area loss. Vulnerability and range size of species were included to reflect conservation values. Further, we derived spatially explicit characterization factors (CFs) that distinguish between surface water and groundwater consumption. All relevant watershed areas that are contributing to feeding the respective wetlands were determined for CF applications. In an example of rose production, we compared damages of water consumption in Kenya and The Netherlands. In both cases, the impact was largest for waterbirds. The total impact from water consumption in Kenya was 67 times larger than in The Netherlands, due to larger species richness and species’ vulnerability in Kenya, as well as more arid conditions and larger amounts of water consumed.

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Household consumption, apart from governmental consumption, is the main driver of worldwide economy. Attached to each household purchase are economic activities along the preceding supply chain, with the associated resource use and emissions. A method to capture and assess all these resource uses and emissions is life cycle assessment. We developed a model for the life cycle assessment of housing and land-based mobility (excluding air travel) consumption of individual households a small village in Switzerland. Statistical census and dwelling register data are the foundations of the model. In a case study performed on a midsized community, we found a median value of greenhouse gas emissions of 3.12 t CO2 equiv and a mean value of 4.30 t CO2 equiv per capita and year for housing and mobility. Twenty-one percent of the households in the investigated region were responsible for 50% of the total greenhouse gas emissions, meaning that if their emissions could be halved the total emissions of the community would be reduced by 25%. Furthermore, a cluster analysis revealed that driving factors for large environmental footprints are demands of large living area heated by fossil energy carriers, as well as large demands of motorized private transportation.

This paper presents a regionalized LCA-based multiobjective optimization model of building energy demand and supply for the case of a Swiss municipality for the minimization of greenhouse gas emissions and particulate matter formation. The results show that the environmental improvement potential is very large: in the optimal case, greenhouse gas emissions from energy supply could be reduced by more than 75% and particulate emissions by over 50% in the municipality. This scenario supposes a drastic shift of heat supply systems from a fossil fuel dominated portfolio to a portfolio consisting of mainly heat pump and woodchip incineration systems. In addition to a change in heat supply technologies, roofs, windows and walls would need to be refurbished in more than 65% of the municipality's buildings. The full potential of the environmental impact reductions will hardly be achieved in reality, particularly in the short term, for example, because of financial constraints and social acceptance, which were not taken into account in this study. Nevertheless, the results of the optimization model can help policy makers to identify the most effective measures for improvement at the decision making level, for example, at the building level for refurbishment and selection of heating systems or at the municipal level for designing district heating networks. Therefore, this work represents a starting point for designing effective incentives to reduce the environmental impact of buildings. While the results of the optimization model are specific to the municipality studied, the model could readily be adapted to other regions.