Environmental assessment of different municipal waste management methods with approach to life cycle assessment (Case study: Yazd, Iran)

Abstract

Today, the production of various types of solid waste and the occurrence of related social, economic and environmental inconsistencies have faced the management of municipal services and waste with many problems in the areas of collection, transportation, processing and disposal of such waste. The purpose of this study is to assess the life cycle of the current management system in Yazd, Iran from the environmental and economic point of view and to determine the priority in the decision-making to improve waste management. There are many tools for assessing the environmental impacts and determining the priority in the decision-making, but one of the widely used methods is life cycle assessment (LCA). In this study, three different scenarios of waste management were defined. The first scenario is the unsanitary separation and landfill (according to current situation in Yazd), the second scenario is the separation, composting and anaerobic digestion, waste incineration plant, disposal of residues and ash in sanitary landfill, and the third scenario is the separation, composting and anaerobic digestion, and sanitary landfill. Then, using the Integrated Waste Management (IWM-2) software, the inventory of the environmental and economic burden of each scenario was analyzed and presented. In general, the assessment of Yazd municipal waste life cycle was performed to achieve the optimal scenario that has less environmental and economic burden. The third scenario was selected as the best management option in this respect.