Comparison of ecological effects and costs of communal waste management systems

Beigl, Peter; Salhofer, Stefan

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2003.08.007

Cited by 67 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…In contrast, Bergsdal et al (2005), by comparing localised and centralised incineration strategies in Norway, showed that WCT impacts are comparable to those caused by incineration and suggested designing WMS so as to minimise travelled distances. Beigl and Salhofer (2004) compared kerbside and bring collection systems in Austria, concluding that individual transport has a stronger impact compared to collective WCT. Yet, a comprehensive comparison between WCT and other WMS impacts was lacking in their work.…”

Section: Background Aim and Scopementioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting for transportation impacts in the environmental assessment of waste management plans

Pisoni

Raccanelli

Dotelli

et al. 2009

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Background, aim, and scope\ud Many recent studies on waste management have described in detail the potential impacts of recycling and final treatment of municipal waste. In public debates the attention has also been focused on the choice of final disposal technologies (e.g., landfilling vs. incineration). However, a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of waste collection and transport was still lacking. In the present study we use LCA to evaluate the potential impact of the provincial waste management plan of Varese (northern Italy). A particular attention is devoted to the estimation of environmental impacts generated during waste transport.\ud \ud Materials and methods\ud A detailed Life Cycle Inventory was built for the transportation phase, based on primary data collected by interviewing the agencies involved in waste collection. To model the recycling and final disposal phase we relied on the BUWAL 250 database. Impacts were evaluated with the Eco-Indicator 99 method in its egalitarian formulation.\ud \ud Results\ud The results of our analysis reveal that the major potential impacts of the plan are associated with waste collection and transport. These impacts are partially compensated by reduced resource consumption through recycling and energy recovery through incineration. Discussion The outputs of the LCIA were compared with those obtained by using other ecoindicators (Eco-Indicator 99 hierarchist and individualist, CML2, EPS2000). Although not comparable on a quantitative basis, they are qualitatively consistent.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud Neglecting the effects of collection and transport might result in a severe underestimation of the environmental impacts of a waste management system, especially as refers to depletion of fossil fuels, emission of respiratory inorganics and climate change. To reduce the environmental impact of waste management systems an accurate optimisation of waste transport is required.\ud Recommendations and perspectives Effective waste management planning requires the explicit inclusion of waste collection and transport when comparing alternative management policies.\ud ISI CON REFEREE\ud P.248-25

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Section: Background Aim and Scopementioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting for transportation impacts in the environmental assessment of waste management plans

Pisoni

Raccanelli

Dotelli

et al. 2009

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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“…In describing the study and the scenarios for evaluation and comparison, the criteria used to define the assumed scenarios are not clear, specifically with respect to the choice of certain waste management options as regards both the percentages of waste involved and the technologies and processes chosen [19,[21][22][23][24][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification and Selection of Alternative Scenarios in LCA Studies of Integrated Waste Management Systems: A Review of Main Issues and Perspectives

Tascione

Raggi

2012

Sustainability

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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a decision support tool that can be used to assess the environmental performance of an integrated waste management system or to identify the system with the best performance through a comparative analysis of different scenarios. The results of the analysis depend primarily on how the scenarios to be compared are defined, that is on which waste fractions are assumed to be sent to certain treatments/destinations and in what amounts. This paper reviews LCAs of integrated waste management systems with the aim of exploring how the scenarios to be compared are defined in the preliminary phase of an LCA. This critical review highlighted that various criteria, more or less subjective, are generally used for the definition of scenarios. Furthermore, the number of scenarios identified and compared is generally limited; this may entail that only the best option among a limited set of possibilities can be selected, instead of identifying the best of all possible combinations. As a result, the advisability of identifying an integrated life cycle-based methodological approach that allows finding the most environmentally sound scenario among all of those that are theoretically possible is stressed.

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“…LCAs have been used in many studies as an environmental tool for comparative assessment of waste disposal options or management scenarios. LCA tools have a wide range of applications as a decision making tool or bench marking tool, and in product management or in new product development [20][21][22][23][24].…”

Section: Life-cycle Assessment (Lca)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment-based Environmental Impact Comparative Analysis of Composting and Electricity Generation from Solid Waste

et al. 2015

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Managing waste is becoming more challenging than ever with the rate of increase of the global population and industrialization. The need for an optimal waste management system, offering added value to the population and industrial growth, is of utmost importance with the increase in energy and food demand, particularly that for organically grown food. In this study, waste generated by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) was taken as a case study. The waste was converted to electricity and compost for use on farmland and the environmental effect of both processes was determined by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach using GaBi™ software. The impacts analyzed were based on the level of emissions from each process. During the comparison, it was found that, if the waste generated by the UTM were used to generate electricity, the outcome would be a reduced emissions profile throughout the cycle as compared to using the waste as compost. However, the saving in emissions from indirect inputs was not considered for the purpose of this study.

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Comparison of ecological effects and costs of communal waste management systems

Cited by 67 publications

References 7 publications

Accounting for transportation impacts in the environmental assessment of waste management plans

Accounting for transportation impacts in the environmental assessment of waste management plans

Identification and Selection of Alternative Scenarios in LCA Studies of Integrated Waste Management Systems: A Review of Main Issues and Perspectives

Life Cycle Assessment-based Environmental Impact Comparative Analysis of Composting and Electricity Generation from Solid Waste

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