An LCA model for waste incineration enhanced with new technologies for metal recovery and application to the case of Switzerland

Electrodialytic upgrading of three different municipal solid waste incineration residue types with focus on Cr, Pb, Zn, Mn, Mo, Sb, Se, V, Cl and SO4

“…as substitute of concrete in cement production has been discussed [6], but it is agreed upon that the bulk material requires pretreatment to remove soluble salts prior to eventual reuse in building materials [4,6,7]. The current trends on handling of MSWI APC residues are towards recovery of valuable metals from the residues to support a circular resource economy [8,9], and utilization of the bulk material in construction industry [10][11][12].…”

Beyond the zero waste concept

“…At the same time man are wasting huge volumes of important metal resources, scientific literature has recently highlighted the continuous depletion of natural stocks (including metals) resulting in higher prices in the metal market (Meylan and Spoerri, 2014). Not only the prices have become higher in the market, but also according to Boesch et al (2014) this trend of increasing natural resources prices is expected to be even more pronounced in the near future. Population is growing and today more than 50% of the world population is living in cities.…”

“…There is a lack of science-based knowledge regarding adequate ways to implement resource recovery from fine-grained fractions of waste such as landfilled wastes, bottom sediments in harbors etc. This has been recently highlighted by Boesch et al (2014) which state that whereas energy recovery from waste material has received much attention in the last years and is rather advanced technologically the potential of material recovery from byproducts of waste management processes. Incineration residues has often been neglected from recovery but for scrap however, it is also source of many metals and phosphorous.…”

Life cycle assessment of resource recovery from municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash

“…The comprehensive scope of assessment methodologies such as life cycle assessment (LCA) is suitable for identifying environmental benefits, problem shifting and breakeven points, and criticality related to the management of MSWI BA. Several studies have applied LCAs to analyse specific aspects of MSWI BA valorisation as a support for the implementation of new sorting systems or utilisation options (Barberio et al, 2010;Birgisdóttir et al, 2007;Boesch et al, 2014;Margallo et al, 2014;Meylan and Spoerri, 2014;Muchova, 2010;Toller et al, 2009) or to compare waste management systems where incineration and MSWI BA management are included (Georgeson, 2006;Kuusiola et al, 2012). However, so far, critical aspects such as the influence of recovered metal quality have not been addressed in LCA studies, and often impacts related to pollutants released into the environment during BA utilisation have been disregarded.…”