Paper waste – Recycling, incineration or landfilling? A review of existing life cycle assessments

Villanueva, Alejandro; Wenzel, Henrik

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2007.02.019

Cited by 191 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Each study defines system boundary conditions that refer to the processes in the products' life cycle used to determine the total climate change impact of the product. Several detailed reviews of LCA studies on paper and wood products have identified a number of key assumptions that can significantly affect the results of LCAs associated with forestry products (Villanueva and Wenzel 2007;Sathre and O'Connor 2010;Gaudreault and Vice 2011). These include many assumptions that also apply to fossil fuel products, e.g.…”

Section: Responsible Editor: Matthias Finkbeinermentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable forest carbon stocks support current assumption of biogenic carbon neutrality in the case of European-manufactured beverage cartons

O’Sullivan

Hopkinson

Crockatt

et al. 2015

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose Life cycle assessments (LCAs) of forest-based products, such as beverage cartons, generally demonstrate lower greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuel-based alternatives and often contain the implicit assumption that removal of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) by a growing forest and emission of CO 2 at the end of a product's life cancel each other out such that the net emission is zero. This study aims to test the validity of this assumption of biogenic CO 2 neutrality in relation to beverage cartons by examining whether carbon stocks of the source forests are stable. The fact that over 95 % of the cartonboard used in their manufacture is sourced from the boreal forests of Sweden and Finland provides a scenario with a straightforward relationship between forest and product thus avoiding issues surrounding the complexities of global supply chains. Methods The reviewed LCAs conclude that beverage cartons have lower greenhouse gas emissions than alternatives, although non-forest-derived components such as plastic caps and aluminium laminate often contribute disproportionately to those emissions. We discuss issues surrounding the assumption of biogenic CO 2 neutrality and explore the factors that influence carbon stocks in boreal forests that supply much of the raw material for beverage cartons.Results and discussion An analysis of published rates of carbon sequestration in the managed forests of Finland and Sweden reveals that forest carbon is stable under current harvest rates. This lends support to the assumption of biogenic CO 2 neutrality in the case of beverage cartons produced from these forests. We conclude that greenhouse gas emissions would not change if an LCA included forest carbon. However, future forest dynamics and thus carbon stocks are predicted to alter in response to climate change, for example, which will have knock on effects for greenhouse gas emissions from packaging derived from forests. Conclusions This review combines current thinking on inclusion of forest carbon in LCAs with an analysis of issues that will influence carbon stocks in managed forests. Although current assumptions of biogenic CO 2 neutrality are valid in the case of European-manufactured beverage cartons, we argue that this assumption needs to be explicitly addressed in LCAs. While there is no accepted methodology for integrating biogenic forest carbon uptake into LCA, our assessment of current trends in forest carbon stocks allows for assumptions of biogenic CO 2 neutrality to be tested, although our approach may not be practical for more complex supply chains.

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Section: Responsible Editor: Matthias Finkbeinermentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable forest carbon stocks support current assumption of biogenic carbon neutrality in the case of European-manufactured beverage cartons

O’Sullivan

Hopkinson

Crockatt

et al. 2015

Int J Life Cycle Assess

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The incineration process can be not very efficient due to the high moisture and ash content of waste. Besides, the authors [10,11] indicate that incineration for energy production in some cases can be even more efficient comparing to recycling, depending on the input and assessment criteria. Landfilling is also used, but it is much worse option due to environmental consequences (for example, the authors [8,9] have proved negative effect of substances, contained also in waste of paper recycling, on living organisms).…”

Section: Enviromental Footprint Enterprise As Indicator Of Balance Itmentioning

confidence: 99%

17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM2017, Ecology, Economics, Education and Legislation

2017

SGEM International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference EXPO Proceedings

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“…Before the 1980s and early 1990s, free chlorine was used to bleach paper; however, nowadays, the use of free chlorine has ceased and chlorine-dioxide or other means of bleaching such as ozone which have taken over [14].Chlorofluorocarbons (eg. CFC-11 and CFC-12) were first manufactured in the 1930's but were not present in the atmosphere in any appreciable quantity before 1950.…”

Section: Ozone Layer Depletionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Benefit of Using Bagasse in Paper Production - A Case Study of LCA in Iran

Sotoodehnia¹,

Reza²

2012

Global Warming - Impacts and Future Perspectives

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Paper waste – Recycling, incineration or landfilling? A review of existing life cycle assessments

Cited by 191 publications

References 4 publications

Stable forest carbon stocks support current assumption of biogenic carbon neutrality in the case of European-manufactured beverage cartons

Stable forest carbon stocks support current assumption of biogenic carbon neutrality in the case of European-manufactured beverage cartons

17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM2017, Ecology, Economics, Education and Legislation

Environmental Benefit of Using Bagasse in Paper Production - A Case Study of LCA in Iran

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