Report: the use of Life Cycle Inventory tools to support an integrated approach to solid waste management

Abstract

Solid waste management needs to be environmentally sustainable to reduce overall environmental burdens. It also needs to be economically sustainable to be affordable for all sectors of the community served. Integrated waste management (IWM) takes an overall approach to this, involves the use of a range of different treatment options and deals with the entire waste stream. The tool of Life Cycle Inventory (the goal definition and inventory stages of a Life Cycle Assessment) can successfully be applied to integrated waste management systems to assess their environmental burdens. Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) tools for solid waste management have been available for some time. Several models have been developed and applied to both theoretical and actual waste management strategies. This report reviews a case study where a Life Cycle Inventory model was applied in the development of an integrated approach to waste management.

Decision support systems based on the Life Cycle Inventory for Municipal Solid Waste management under uncertainty

“…Typically, the approaches proposed in the recent literature are based on LCI tools. Among others, McDougall and Hruska (2000) present the use of LCI tools to support an integrated approach to solid waste management. Similarly, McDougall (2001) describes a number of current LCI models for waste management systems.…”

“…LCI, part of an LCA, is the inventory of materials, energy requirements, and environmental emissions associated with a product or process from the time of the original recovery of raw materials used to build the product (''cradle'') to the time of its ultimate disposal to earth (''grave'') (Vigon et al, 1993), and can be used to compare the performance of different production technologies for manufacturing the same product (e.g., gas production via pyrolysis), and should also include a goal definition and scoping step for study and an inventory analysis stage (see, e.g., McDougall and Hruska, 2000).…”

“…ISO 14040, Environmental Management -Life Cycle Assessment, Principles and Framework (ISO 1997 (McDougall and Hruska, 2000).…”

“…Today the trend in thermal waste treatment technology is to pressure for cost-effectiveness toward greater facility efficiency (Brunner, 2005). Now, solid waste management systems must consider human safety and must reduce, as much as possible, the environmental burdens of waste management (energy consumption, pollution of air, land and water, and loss of amenity) (McDougall and Hruska, 2000). Camobreco et al (1999) described Life Cycle Inventory's (LCI) two basic ways of dealing with beneficial co-products of a process: allocation principle, where the LCI flows of a process (emissions, energy and material requirements, etc.…”

LCA of waste management systems—research opportunities

“…However, its utility for waste management systems in between the two extremes is debatable, while a holistic or "life-cycle" approach is appropriate for a proper comparative evaluation of various waste management systems (Barton et al 1996;Finnveden et al 2005;Chaya and Gheewala 2007;Del Borghi et al 2009). Also, the waste management hierarchy cannot provide guidance vis-à-vis using a combination of waste treatment technologies in integrated waste management systems; in such cases, too, an integrated assessment tool such as life cycle assessment (LCA) has been successfully used (McDougall and Hruska 2000;Liamsanguan and Gheewala 2008a), and studies abound on the application of this tool for decision support regarding waste management systems (Nyland et al 2003;Wanichpongpan and Gheewala 2007;Liamsanguan and Gheewala 2008b).…”