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Life cycle costing of waste management systems: Overview, calculation principles and case studies
Abstract
This paper provides a detailed and comprehensive cost model for the economic assessment of solid waste management systems. The model was based on the principles of Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and followed a bottom-up calculation approach providing detailed cost items for all key technologies within modern waste systems. All technologies were defined per tonne of waste input, and each cost item within a technology was characterised by both a technical and an economic parameter (for example amount and cost of fuel related to waste collection), to ensure transparency, applicability and reproducibility. Cost items were classified as: (1) budget costs, (2) transfers (for example taxes, subsidies and fees) and (3) externality costs (for example damage or abatement costs related to emissions and disamenities). Technology costs were obtained as the sum of all cost items (of the same type) within a specific technology, while scenario costs were the sum of all technologies involved in a scenario. The cost model allows for the completion of three types of LCC: a Conventional LCC, for the assessment of financial costs, an Environmental LCC, for the assessment of financial costs whose results are complemented by a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for the same system, and a Societal LCC, for socio-economic assessments. Conventional and Environmental LCCs includes budget costs and transfers, while Societal LCCs includes budget and externality costs. Critical aspects were found in the existing literature regarding the cost assessment of waste management, namely system boundary equivalency, accounting for temporally distributed emissions and impacts, inclusions of transfers, the internalisation of environmental impacts and the coverage of shadow prices, and there was also significant confusion regarding terminology. The presented cost model was implemented in two case study scenarios assessing the costs involved in the source segregation of organic waste from 100,000 Danish households and the subsequent co-digestion of organic waste with animal manure. Overall, source segregation resulted in higher financial costs than the alternative of incinerating the organic waste with the residual waste: 1.6M€/year, of which 0.9M€/year was costs for extra bins and bags used by the households, 1.0M€/year for extra collections and -0.3M€/year saved on incineration.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
... The rationale for both decisions was to simplify the kinetics and cost expressions to evaluate the techno-economic performance of a theoretical activated sludge process in terms of different influent conditions (i.e., wastewater production and pollutant loading), thereby determining the reliability of the facility, the sensitivity of reliability influential parameters, and life-cycle cost considering capital, operational, and risk-related expenditures. Fortunately, the proposed framework is versatile, thus, it is expected it can be upgraded to include more sophisticated activated sludge and cost models described in existing literature (Gernaey et al., 2014;Henze et al., 2000;Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). However, the introduction of more pragmatic models will require refinements to the framework for leveraging its potential. ...
... Another possible explanation is that CAPEX and OPEX are subjected to changes in the price of materials, consumables, electricity, and so on, provoked by inflation, and supply chain challenges (at either scale), among other stressors. Consequently, using more rigorous approaches such as system inventory and/or benchmarking (Gernaey et al., 2014;Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015) to account for energy and material flows associated with the WWTP will provide more accurate cost data. ...
... On the other hand, the determination of external costs could also be extended by quantifying the economic impacts on society due to damages or mitigation of environmental and public health issues caused by WWTP operation. The previous include direct and indirect costs provoked by global warming, terrestrial acidification, eutrophication, toxicity, and abiotic depletion of resources, along with the users' willingness to pay for good sanitation services, among others (Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). Hence, whenever data is available, this innovative framework could be extended to include broader threats, thereby providing a wider picture of unforeseen external costs the WWTP may be subjected to. ...
Wastewater treatment plants need their reliability to be properly assessed to preserve society’s health and availability of water resources. To date, no wastewater treatment plant framework comprehends the reliability of the system, considering the influence of uncertain parameters, and the total costs during the lifespan of the project. Here, an innovative framework combining a reliability analysis, a reliability-sensitivity analysis, and a life-cycle cost assessment is presented as a proof-of-concept tool for reliability-based life-cycle cost optimization of an activated sludge process due to its common application in sanitation worldwide. The results indicate (1) great variability of the reliability scenario due to the influent loads, (2) the sludge volumetric index exerts the most influence on the system’s reliability and risk expenditures, and (3) an optimum scenario associated with the lowest life-cycle cost and an annual failure rate of 19 day of failure year⁻¹ can be obtained via an exhaustive simulation protocol. The framework demonstrates to be a promising tool for techno-economic analysis of activated sludge processes, as well as to optimize project expenditures based on its reliability to withstand different influent loads. This proof-of-concept optimization framework is expected to find multiple applications not only in sanitation and water treatment but also in other industries while supporting sustainable development goals.
... The eLCC adheres to state-of-the-art LCC methodology as presented in (Hunkeler, Lichtenvort, Rebitzer , 2008) and (Hunkeler , Lichtenvort , Rebitzer , 2008;Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). The LCC and LCA share the same object, scope, functional unit, and system boundaries. ...
... All costs that were found in the literature or collected as primary data were adjusted for inflation to EUR2020. Capital investments (CAPEX) were first amortised, assuming a 5 % market interest rate, and then annualised using a 20-year lifetime for buildings and 5-8-year for equipment, as detailed in (Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). ...
... The environmental assessment (LCA) complied with the standards ISO 14040/14044 (ISO, 2006a(ISO, , 2006b, while the socio-economic assessment was performed in accordance with the environmental and full environmental life cycle costing (eLCC and feLCC, respectively) methodology presented in the literature (Hoogmartens et al., 2014;Hunkeler D., Lichtenvort. K., Rebitzer G., 2008;Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). The LCA, eLCC and feLCC shared the same scope, namely FU, and system boundaries. ...
... We considered the EF's sixteen impact categories but only present and discuss the results for climate change (section 3.2), while the results for the remaining impact categories are reported in the SM. As for the costs, we performed environmental life cycle costing (eLCC) (Hoogmartens et al., 2014;Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). To assess the full environmental LCC (feLCC; sum of internal and external costs), external costs were also quantified using the shadow price of emissions from De Bruyn et al. ...
With increasing textile consumption and limited sorting and recycling capacities, the EU faces major challenges in terms of managing its textile waste. This study investigates the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of explorative policy scenarios for a more sustainable textile waste management system in Europe. These scenarios differ substantially in the amounts of textile waste generated and separately collected, closed-loop recycling capacities and textile waste exports. Our results show that sustainable textile waste management remains highly relevant for the sector. Still, without addressing in parallel prevention of textile waste generation via production and consumption patterns, a climate-neutral and circular textiles sector will be hard to achieve. Interventions in the waste management of textiles could reduce global warming impacts by up to 22.3 Mt CO 2 per year, which translates to an 18% sector-wide impact by 2035. Depending on the intervention(s), the estimated required investment at present amounts to between 7 and 33 billion EUR. The study provides a valuable starting point for evidence-based decisions on future textile policymaking in Europe.
... The former category represents the consumption of all types of natural resources, including water and forest land, determining double-counting issues with the categories "water depletion" and "land use" (Ddiba et al., 2022). Avoiding the use and increasing the recovery of "natural resources" is also associated with a reduced impact on "global warming" and a more efficient use of primary resources, including nutrients recuperated from composting and digestion processes to be used as fertilisers (Angelo et al., 2017;Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). Similarly, the "mineral resources" category depends on the consumption of materials from mineral extraction (Drielsma et al., 2016;Prateep Na Talang and Sirivithayapakorn, 2022). ...
... These expenses are assumed to be paid only once throughout the entire life cycle of the considered MSWMSs. The "capital cost" of landfilling mostly depends on the cost of the acquisition of land, which is excluded from non-georeferenced case studies, leading to the need to estimate it, thus limiting the precision of the LCC evaluations (Demichelis et al., 2022;Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015;Sanjuan-Delmás et al., 2021). ...
In the context of Circular Economy, the significance of municipal solid waste management systems (MSWMSs) has increased, as well as the need for comprehensive assessment tools of their sustainability. In the Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) framework, the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA), which is a methodology aiming to evaluate the environmental, economic, and social burdens throughout the various phases of waste management, has raised great interest. The paper describes the state-of-the-art of the implementation of LCT tools, with high regard to LCSA, for the evaluation of MSWMSs through their life cycle, with a deep focus on the use of both midpoint and endpoint categories. Drawing insights from an analysis of 69 case studies, the paper identifies the most frequently applied midpoint and endpoint categories for the sustainability assessment of MSWMSs. These categories are exposed in terms of their significance and applicability to specific waste management scenarios, providing valuable guidance for experts and researchers seeking to employ LCSA in MSWMSs assessments. Additionally, the paper outlines the limits associated with the implementation of LCSA, thereby highlighting areas for further research and improvement. In contrast to other reviews in this field, this paper uniquely focuses on the implementation of LCSA in the specific context provided by MSWMSs. By disseminating such insights, the paper aspires to foster the widespread adoption of LCSA by experts and researchers, ultimately advancing the sustainability discourse in municipal solid waste management.
... The environmental assessment complied with the principles of standards ISO 14040/14044 (ISO, 2006a(ISO, , 2006b. The socio-economic assessment was performed in accordance with the state-of-the-art environmental and full environmental life cycle costing (eLCC and feLCC respectively) methodology presented in (Hoogmartens et al., 2014;Hunkeler et al., 2008;Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). The LCA, eLCC and feLCC shared the same scope, namely FU, and system boundaries. ...
... Sixteen impact categories were considered, but only the results for Climate Change are presented and discussed herein in Section 3.2, while the results for the remaining impact categories are reported in the SM. The socio-economic assessment included internal costs (budget costs, transfers) and external costs, often referred to as "externalities" (De Bruyn et al., 2018;Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015) (see Supplementary Methods in the SM). ...
Textile production and consumption continues to grow, and yet textile waste management in Europe remains suboptimal. This study assesses and compares the life cycle impacts of managing selected textile waste fractions via selected technologies, under current and future framework conditions. The study combines environmental and socio-economic analyses with data input from stakeholder consultation within the European Union. Preparing for reuse is the most beneficial management pathway from both an environmental and a socio-economic perspective. Overall, mechanical recycling is the second-most preferred pathway for most environmental impact categories. However, for recycling pathways to be economically competitive against incineration, either CO2 prices will have to increase, or technology and processing costs will have to decrease. The uncertainty analysis identified critical parameters, such as substitution factors and yields of most desirable products from the recycling processes. The results offer a detailed basis for prioritising technology pathways for future textile waste management in Europe.
... Typically, LCA is accompanied by an economic assessment often in the form of a conventional LCC focusing on internal costs, i.e. budget costs and transfers (budget costs are costs incurred by the different actors involved in the waste management chain while transfers refer to money redistributed among stakeholders, i.e. taxes, subsidies, value added tax and fees) and reflecting a traditional financial assessment. Recent advances of the LCC methodology applied to waste management have been presented in Martinez-Sanchez et al. (2015) building on Hunkeler et al. (2008). The LCC and LCA typically share the same object, scope, functional unit, and system boundaries. ...
... For social assessment, the UNEP Guidelines on SLCA (UNEP, 2020) identifies six stakeholder categories to be addressed: workers, local community, consumers, society, children and other actors in the value chain with impact categories to be selected depending on the scope of the assessment. As for the economic assessment, conventional LCC is normally applied following the methodology suggested in Martinez-Sanchez et al. (2015) building in turn on Hunkeler et al. (2008). ...
Life cycle thinking methods such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and costing (LCC) were originally developed to assess the performance of products and services (business-making decisions). However, they are increasingly deployed to support policy-making along the entire policy cycle, including via impact assessment (IA) of different policy options. These applications are associated with a number of challenges, mainly related to the dynamic and prospective nature of policy IA, typically forward-looking into 10–20 years ahead. This requires the application of prospective scenario analyses to develop the baseline scenario, reflecting the ‘do nothing’ into the future (business-as-usual), and the alternative scenarios, reflecting the consequences incurred by the implementation of the policy options under study. Such prospective and broadened boundary nature of policy IA challenges traditional LCA/LCC practices mostly based on retrospective, static scenarios and datasets. The present study provides an overview of recent IA studies supporting waste policy to show the state-of-the-art and the main challenges associated with the application of life cycle methods in IA, focusing on the most recent EU waste and circular economy policies. Moreover, since specific and transparent guidance on how to implement consistently these methods in policy IA is lacking, the study provides an initial guidance for application of life cycle thinking in IA drawing upon the knowledge obtained conducting waste policy IA studies. Key challenges in the field are still to be addressed, and might inspire further research to improve the application of life cycle thinking to policy assessment.
... Also, studies that applied discount rates to internal costs differently from those applied to external ones were identified (Mckenzie and Durango-Cohen 2012; Wang et al. 2020;Liu et al. 2021). In addition, we cataloged a study that used the same rate for both costs (Martinez-Sanchez et al. 2015), while most studies did not apply any type of rate in the discount of monetization of externalities, because these are not significant in relation to the total costs. The application of rates was useful in studies, mainly to consolidate NPV calculations. ...
... (a) Uncertainties in cost data (Kendall et al. 2008a;Zhang et al. 2010;Mousazadeh et al. 2011;Hardisty et al. 2011;Yu et al. 2013;Simoes et al. 2013;Debacker et al. 2013;Simoes et al. 2014;Martinez-Sanchez et al. 2015;Wu et al. 2015;Weldu and Assefa 2017;Lu and El Hanandeh 2017a, b;Man et al. 2017;Lu et al. 2017;Hall et al. 2017;Lee and Thomas 2017;Edwards et al. 2018;Albuquerque et al. 2019;Shi et al. 2019;Hong et al. 2019;Ma et al. 2019;Zhang et al. 2020a;Liu et al. 2020;Stipanovic et al. 2020;Wang et al. 2020;Gulcimen et al. 2021;Canaj et al. 2021;Marin and Lang 2022;Trovato and Cappello 2022;Yao et al. 2022) (b) Lack of methodological clarity on the monetization of external costs (Kendall et al. 2008a;Wu et al. 2015;Martinez-Sanchez et al. 2016;Corona et al. 2016;Luttenberger and Luttenberger 2017;Hall et al. 2017;Lee and Thomas 2017;Edwards et al. 2018;Liu et al. 2021;Caramanico et al. 2021) (c) Limited perspective, based only on local data (Kim et al. 2011;Settembre et al. 2018;Liu et al. 2020;Zhou et al. 2021) (d) Lack of connection between data as a local reality experienced in the product system Zhang et al. 2020a;Li et al. 2020) In addition to these categorized challenges, some examples of individual difficulties identified in the studies are cited: i) personal subjectivity and limitations in assessing external costs (Lim et al. 2013); ii) the use of temporary values for some impacts (e.g., biodiversity related to land use) that must be replaced (Chen and Holden 2018); and iii) the complexity to obtain data for inventories with their respective collection method (Nasab et al. 2022). ...
Purpose
In order to train new professionals and researchers in the area, among other purposes, it is necessary to have knowledge about the operationalization of life cycle tools. The objective of this study is to formulate a proposal for conducting environmental life cycle costing (ELCC) from the approach of this content in the scientific literature.
Methods
To this end, we developed a review with the analysis of studies that performed the tool in various productive contexts, between 2008 and 2022, published in journals indexed in the Web of Science. The application of keywords defined for the search allowed the retrieval of 4007 documents. Non-peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, review articles, editorial materials, meeting abstracts, letters, and book chapters were excluded. The abstracts and methodologies were also read to further exclude articles that were not classified using the ELCC. With the application of these procedures, we obtained 133 articles, which were analyzed in detail.
Results and discussion
A proposal for conducting the ELCC was formulated to guide the execution of the tool. This was composed of procedures, challenges, and opportunities. The main procedures identified included the delimitation of a perspective, goal, scope, internal and external cost categories, application of economic indicators, and uncertainty analysis. The main identified challenges refer to the ELCC execution reproducibility, the difficulty in standardizing cost categories, and the limited vision regarding the tool use. The opportunities mapped out encompass the exploration of the thirty-two gaps pointed out for ten research segments, emphasis on the service sector, government programs, creation of databases, and approach to ELCC concepts in educational training.
Conclusions and recommendations
The proposal made it possible to systematize knowledge from the way ELCC has been conducted in the last decades in different segments. In the practical field, this study serves to guide researchers, professionals, or students who wish to use the tool to achieve professional goals. Future research can also refine and explore the proposed structure, as well as the identified gaps and other opportunities.
... The software has also been used to assess the environmental impacts and costs of specific waste streams in selected regions, e.g. food waste in Amsterdam and in a region of Denmark (Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). Another study of interest for the EU is that by Bijleveld et al. (2022) where the authors quantify the potential GHG emission reduction offered by the EU waste management system. ...
... The life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed in accordance with the guidelines of the ISO 14040/14044 standards (ISO 2006a(ISO , 2006b Bassi et al. (2023). The life cycle costing (LCC) is carried out in accordance with approaches for waste management economics as described in Hunkeler et al. (2008) and Martinez-Sanchez et al. (2015). The LCC shares the same goal, scope, functional unit and system boundaries as the LCA. ...
... CBA is a measurement method for determining the value of benefits obtained from a process/activity (Misuraca, 2014). Several researchers also use CBA to measure the effectiveness of waste management, such as waste management in Romania (Ghinea and Gavrilescu, 2016), food waste management in Singapore (Ahamed et al., 2016), solid waste management (Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). The selling price of wood waste is IDR. ...
Environmental issues have become an important consideration to be included in business operations. One of the main environmental problems in the wood industry is the high production of wood waste and increasing scarcity and cost of raw materials. For this reason, companies need to utilize wood waste to reduce material costs and, at the same time, reduce the impact of waste on the environment. Converting wood waste into products that can be sold will increase its economic value. This research aims to identify the types of waste from a furniture company and reduce waste by designing various products made from wood waste. Wood chips are wood waste that have the potential to be reused. Waste wood chips from the materials station can be used to create bedside table products. The bedside table was chosen because of its high selling price, and the company could make it with its existing resources. Apart from that, the company still needs to expand its variety of bedside tables. The bedside table was designed using the TRIZEE method. TRIZEE is a method that combines eco-efficiency with 40 TRIZ principles, which can reduce environmental impacts in alignment with company goals. The design process resulted in 4 bedside table variations. Production capacity is estimated to produce 56 bedside tables per month. If scrap waste is successfully used as bedside table material. Apart from saving raw materials, the company will be able to reduce wood waste and gain greater profits from waste utilization.
... Several researchers used CBA to measure the effectiveness of waste management, such as the scenario of waste management in Romania [66], specifically on food waste in Singapore [67], and in waste management in a broader scope, namely developing countries in Asia. Ref. [68] conducted a life cycle costing assessment for a solid waste management system. Ref. [69] used CBA to measure the integration of waste and energy management. ...
The furniture industry is one of the industrial sectors that has a potential market in Indonesia. This industry requires a lot of wood raw materials but is faced with a wood legality verification system that limits raw materials. Industrial players still need to start using waste as raw materials, which will reduce the use of primary raw materials. The circular economy concept can be applied to waste treatment. This study aims to design a pump-gallon product made from waste, considering the relatively high level of gallon container consumption. With this design, it is hoped to utilize waste into economically valuable products while reducing the environmental impact it causes. The product design process uses an integrated QFD-TRIZ method combined with circular economy principles. QFD functions to determine consumer desires and make technical responses, while TRIZ resolves contradictions in technical responses. The circular economy attribute is used as a reference in making gallon pump products from wood waste. After the design process is complete, it is followed by an economic feasibility analysis using the cost-benefit ratio. The result of this research is the design of multifunctional and modular products for gallon pumps. The gallon storage is designed to store not only gallons but also a small table for placing dirty glass and a drawer at the bottom that can be used to keep the glass or other items. There is a detachable system between the upper and lower components, making it easier to repair and use. At the bottom, they mounted castor wheels to facilitate product movement. Designing products made from waste will increase the income of furniture SMEs. In addition, it is expected that this will overcome waste management problems and shortages of raw materials experienced by furniture SMEs. Future research can utilize powder and smaller pieces of wood.
... Environmental criteria should be considered both at the level of selecting raw materials and materials used for production, as well as the production processes themselves (sustainable production). Products should be designed in such a way as to be recyclable [34][35], or reusable, resulting in waste management that is more efficient and less costly [36][37]. In order to create such products, the analysis of their entire life cycle must be carried out, including the production, marketing and use phases, as well as the social and ecological aspects of their disposal. ...
This study includes research whose main goal was to answer the question of the mandatory features of a sustainable product and the level of their fulfilment in view of the manufacturing process of parts and technical subassemblies of a means of agricultural transport. With reference to the objective formulated in this way, preliminary criteria were established that were then subjected to a comprehensive analysis and breakdown (determining the significance from the research perspective). In the next stage, within the theoretical and design layer – following literature review and expert research – a research tool in the form of an evaluation sheet was created. At the empirical level, a thorough evaluation of the implementation of deliberately selected propositions serving as the global foundation of the concept of the sustainable product manufacturing process was performed (the holistic approach). The investigation was conducted among selected manufacturers of parts and technical subassemblies of means of agricultural transport (agricultural machinery sector). At the onset of the research work, the conceptual model of the thesis was constructed, according to which the surveyed enterprises are focused on individuals (working environment), natural environment and economics (including minimizing waste throughout the product life cycle), which is a prerequisite as far as a sustainable product is concerned.
... Life cycle cost (LCC) is a popular method for cost accounting in MSW management currently [27]. It refers to all the costs related to a product during its entire life, including design, manufacture, procurement, use, maintenance, and disposal [28]. Suggestions on how to reduce the cost of a product, select a better scheme can be provided through LCC research Milić et al., [29]. ...
Municipal solid waste incineration for power generation is significant for reducing and reusing solid waste. The study conducted an integrated assessment of environment and economy on municipal solid waste incineration in China, from a “cradle to grave” perspective using 1 tonne of municipal solid waste incineration as the functional unit. The environmental impacts of each month are also calculated to analyze the dynamic change throughout one year. The results indicate that the environmental impacts are mainly concentrated in marine ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, human carcinogenic toxicity, and human non-carcinogenic toxicity. Flue gas purification, waste incineration and transportation are the key processes, which account for 65.61 %, 18.50 %, and 11.93 % of the overall environmental impact, respectively. Urea, activated carbon, chelating agent (EDTA) and diesel fuel for transportation are key factors. The life cycle cost (LCC) is 132.26 RMB/t of waste, of which the initial capital causes the largest economic cost. When considering power generated from municipal solid waste incineration to replace electricity supply from the power grid, it achieves significant environmental benefits and the normalized environmental impact value changes from 0.85 to −12.19. The findings provide references for municipal solid waste treatment to mitigate the environmental impact and reduce the economic burden across the entire life cycle.
... LCA methodology was applied in accordance with ISO 14040/14044 standards. Complementary, LCC methodology presented in Martinez-Sanchez et al. (2015) was applied to perform both the environmental LCC (ELCC) and the full environmental LCC (feLCC), the former consisting of a financial assessment including already internalised environmental externalities (e.g., landfill and incineration tax) to which operators are subject, and the latter including costs for marketed goods along with the monetised environmental externalities (i.e., the effects on the welfare of the society caused by those; this is a partial social cost analysis as other social aspects are not addressed), expressed in shadow prices. ...
... 46 Based on Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis, Martinez-Sanchez et al used a bottom-up calculation method to analyze the cost of key technologies involved in medical waste disposal. 47 Liu et al focused on assessing the cost and benefit of implementing a plastic medical waste recycling system, developed a benchmark model for evaluating the benefits of decision-making related to plastic medical waste recycling in China in 2019, and conducted a sensitivity analysis to examine the impact of relevant parameters on the efficiency of the recycling system. 48 Vaccari et al investigated the association between the trend of medical waste production and the costs associated with medical waste management in Italy. ...
Over the past decade, the global outbreaks of SARS, influenza A (H1N1), COVID-19, and other major infectious diseases have exposed the insufficient capacity for emergency disposal of medical waste in numerous countries and regions. Particularly during epidemics of major infectious diseases, medical waste exhibits new characteristics such as accelerated growth rate, heightened risk level, and more stringent disposal requirements. Consequently, there is an urgent need for advanced theoretical approaches that can perceive, predict, evaluate, and control risks associated with safe disposal throughout the entire process in a timely, accurate, efficient, and comprehensive manner. This article provides a systematic review of relevant research on collection, storage, transportation, and disposal of medical waste throughout its entirety to illustrate the current state of safe disposal practices. Building upon this foundation and leveraging emerging information technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI), we deeply contemplate future research directions with an aim to minimize risks across all stages of medical waste disposal while offering valuable references and decision support to further advance safe disposal practices.
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Background and Objective: The economic evaluation is a tool for decision-making
based on data that helps to select and prioritize waste management components and their implementation based on economic criteria. The purpose of this study was a comprehensive economic evaluation of the waste management components by life cycle costing assessment (LCC) , Net Present Value index (NPV), and Internal Rate of Return (IRR).
Materials and Methods: The cost of each waste management component, was calculated by LCC for one tonne of waste in. The efficiency of each waste management component was obtained using the NPV and IRR indicators.
Results: The results showed that recycling with 260%, and then composting with 40%, have the highest economic returns and the ability to return capital. The sensitivity analysis showed the profitability of these two processes despite the changes of ±30% in the influential calculation parameters.
Conclusion: In this study, comprehensive economic evaluation showed that using LCC, NPV, and IRR with their sensitivity analysis, simultaneity can have an important role in waste management decision-making.
... Conventional LCC (financial LCC) is the original method. LCC is applied as a decision making tool to support acquisition of capital equipment and long lasting products with high investment costs (Martinez-Sanchez, Kromann, Astrup, 2015). The Convention LCC is useful for a single actor or from the manufacturer's point of view (Hunkeler, Lichtenvort, Rebizer, Ciroth, 2008). ...
The family of LCA ISO Standards is used to evaluate not only environmental, economic,
and social impacts of a product throughout its life cycle but also those that can be assigned to baskets of goods, companies, households, countries, and the planet. If the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) introduces basic steps (defining goal and scope of the assessment, inventory analysis, impact assessment, interpretation), the Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) represents a valuable approach for accounting for social impacts associated with production and consumption along a supply chain, as well as to support decision makers in different contexts. Indeed, SLCA can be used to explore
supply chains at different scale and industrial processes. The integration and the complementarity of the two approaches (LCA, SLCA) may trigger a few challenges: the variety of indicators, the assessment of positive and negative impacts, the interpretation of results, the involvement of stakeholders and the recognition of shared values, the decision making by different actors... But switching from LCA to SCLA is only the first step to engage the innovation process to a more sustainable pathway. The final goal consists of carrying the different actors of a supply chain to support the transition to Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). This global approach is useful to introduce the R-framework (from 4R to 10 R) to map Circular Economy strategies and to foresee how they influence the viability of value chains for the innovation cycle. Environmental, economic, and social impacts have to be considered regarding the three following scales (macro, meso and micro) to elicit generic interactions. At the micro level, the dashboard of sustainable indicators for all
the partners of the supply chain highlights midpoints indicators and endpoints indicators. The gap between midpoint and endpoint indicators will challenge different pathways. Moreover, investigating the innovation process in the light of LCSA enables us to move from a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) - ideal type to a SDGs reporting. At the meso and macro level, the social acceptance of innovation plays a crucial role. The R-framework to support a circular economy may be relevant
for challenging the equal balance of People, Profit, Planet, Peace and Partnerships
... For this reason, recent studies suggest a different name for this impact category (full environmental life cycle costing). The ELCC and SLCC share the same object, scope, functional unit, and system boundaries of the LCA and were facilitated with the software EASETECH v3.4.4 (Clavreul et al., 2014), following state-of-the-art methodology as suggested in recent works (Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). Data used for the socio-economic assessment are reported in the Supplementary Information (Table S4). ...
... However, the dysconnectivity of externality cost from the waste economic modeling jeopardizes the sustainable development of the EPR scheme (OECD, 2001). From the environmental policy viewpoint, externality cost is associated with environmental damages incurred outside the conventional monetary system and is tied to economic welfare (Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). Externality cost garners attention in PW management studies for its potential to identify free ridership (i.e., a financial loophole where EPR actors receive unpaid benefits) within the plastic circular value chain by delegating environmental damage responsibilities on a monetary basis (Kaffine and O'Reilly, 2015). ...
Neglecting externality cost in extended producer responsibility (EPR) fiscal planning worsens the free-ridership issue in plastic waste (PW) management. An integrated P-graph-life cycle optimization framework is developed to optimize PW management pathways based on the synergistic trade-off between the environmental and economic concerns via graphical output with cost-bearing responsibilities illustrated. Malaysia (i.e., the top PW
import destination) is chosen as the case study. Mechanical recycling has the largest externality gain (12.10 US2022/t PW). The optimal solutions encompassing landfill, incineration, and mechanical recycling yield profit if only considering budget cost with revenue from secondary products (i.e., 0.78–112 M US2022/y). Sensitivity analysis indicates optimal pathways are sensitive to collection fees and prices of secondary products. This study provides new insights to promote circular PW policy implementation with externality consideration.
... LCC is a financial analysis performed for evaluating the economic viability of a system or technology. LCCs can be approached from a planning or analysis perspective (Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). Planning LCCs assess the financial performance of a technology/system with respect to ongoing changes, whereas analysis LCCs examine economic behavior during its current state. ...
Inefficient solid waste management strategies impose severe environmental impacts, financial burdens, and social implications. Waste-to-energy (WtE) conversion systems have emerged as sustainable alternatives to minimize the environmental footprint of waste management operations and diversify the energy mix toward a greater renewable energy share. However, decision-makers face the challenge of shifting to WtE systems due to the massive investments required and unverified long-term gains. Life cycle costing (LCC) offers a systematic approach that can accommodate the numerous components involved in WtE projects and the high variability of the revenue streams. To this end, the present chapter aims to review the existing literature on the application of LCC on WtE systems to assess their economic feasibility. The methodological framework of this review covers the definition of system boundaries and the description of the applied LCC parameters and indicators. The chapter provides a financial assessment of several bio- and thermochemical WtE technologies in terms of capital and operational expenditures and potential revenue streams. A comparative LCC case study is conducted on selected regions around the world having different waste management profiles and market conditions. The results revealed that developed countries with a larger fraction of recyclable materials are more well-suited to thermochemical conversion processes, whereas developing countries with higher organic content can benefit from biochemical systems. The findings shall validate the benefits of implementing WtE systems toward more sustainable and cost-effective advancements in the waste management sector.
... Life cycle cost (LCC) is a methodological approach that considers all economic costs associated with products, services or activities along their life-cycle (Martinez-Sanchez et al., 2015). LCC provides a comprehensive evaluation, is designed to explore the profitability, reliability, availability, serviceability and security of the product or activity, incorporating costs related to investment, operation, maintenance, faulty performance and disposal (Sharma and Chandel, 2021). ...
Pig breeding is moving toward more intensive development and is accompanied by the integrated generation of pig waste. This has disrupted the synergy between the original manure and sewage management mode and corresponding farmland at the household level. Centralized bio-energy mode is proposed to relieve environmental pressure, increase the resource recovery efficiency and rebuild the breeding and cropping. However, there is a lack of comprehensive information on a regional scale, particularly regarding evaluation, applicability and feasibility. Therefore, compared to the individual and traditional mode at the household level, this study was conducted using life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis, systematically assessed the environmental performance and economic viability of the centralized bio-energy mode at the regional scale, and further explored the adaptability of multi-subjects (various pig farms and biogas enterprise) and regional feasibility. Results revealed that the centralized bio-energy mode appeared to be a better alternative in terms of global warming, terrestrial acidification and marine eutrophication, with the significant reductions of 49.49 %, 6.8 % and 4.67 % respectively. Moreover, the study demonstrated a substantial profit of 48.5 CNY 1 per ton of managed pig waste. Furthermore, both environmental and economic performance could be improved through scale expansion and transport optimization, with an optimal collection radius of less than 31.45 km. Conclusions clarified the potential of centralized bio-energy mode and provided valuable references for its implementation in various regions. Ultimately, further contributing to a more efficient, cost-effective, and regulated manner for resource recovery, culminating in the sustainability of pig farming and achieving environmental-friendly agriculture practices in regional contexts.
... LCA methodology is applied in accordance with ISO 14040/14044 standards (ISO, 2006b(ISO, , 2006a. Besides, LCC methodology presented in Martinez-Sanchez et al. (2015) is applied to perform both the conventional and societal LCC, the former consisting in a traditional financial assessment and the latter also known as "welfare-economic" assessment that includes marketed goods along with the effects on the welfare of the society caused by externalities. The EASTECH software (Clavreul et al., 2014) is used to model scenarios and calculate the environmental and economic impacts. ...
The EU Green Deal aims at solving the challenges related to plastic production, (mis-)use, and pollution. While the bioplastic industry is identified as one of the possible avenues to tackle the problem, bioplastic waste collection and management practices are still far from full-development and harmonisation. To inform policy makers on the best practices and their feasibility, this study quantifies environmental and economic impacts of compostable plastic packaging (CPP) waste management schemes by means of Life Cycle Assessment and Costing. Results show that, with respect to climate change and financial costs, the scheme leading to the highest benefits is collecting CPP with conventional plastic waste followed by mechanical sorting and recycling (saving ca. 306 kg CO2eq. t-1 at a net income of 3.7 EUR t-1). The second best option is collecting CPP with bio-waste followed by biological treatment (saving ca. 69 kg CO2eq. t-1 at a cost of 197 EUR t-1). Collecting CPP with conventional plastics followed by sorting and biological treatment is to be avoided. The trend on the other impact categories generally follows climate change. Ideally, closed loop is therefore preferred, but conditioned by (i) having high share of CPP in municipal waste (else sorting is economically unfeasible), (ii) good citizen's behaviour at source-segregation, and (iii) an established market for secondary material. Currently, overall benefits are limited by the low amounts, suggesting that the management choice could ultimately be based on rather simple technical and economic feasibility criteria while regulatory and management efforts should be focused on other waste streams with greater implications on environment.
... There have been instances in the literature where environmental and social values are assigned to life cycle costing, such as in waste management systems [37]. Similarly, the nexus of life cycle costing and life cycle analysis has been explored in Polish SMEs [38,39] using survey-based approaches, and there have been frameworks in the literature that seek to integrate the two approaches [40,41]. ...
Reducing wasted food has been identified as a key strategy to meet food security goals and attain human nutritional needs and food preferences in an equitable, sustainable, and resilient manner. Yet, mathematically modeling how reducing wasted food contributes to sustainability, equity, and resilience objectives, and the possible interactions and tradeoffs among these metrics, is limited by challenges to quantifying these characteristics. Using the process of convergent science, we develop a prototype wasted food model to evaluate how a set of common equity, sustainability, and resilience measures interact. We consider prevention (consumer education) and treatment (anaerobic digestion and composting) options for wasted food diversion from landfills. The model applies a convex nonlinear optimization to determine the allocation of wasted food to different management alternatives, optimizing for economic (net cost), sustainability (emissions reductions or energy savings), or equity (distribution of per-capita cost or emissions reduction impacts). The model developed in this research is available online as open-source code for others to replicate and build upon for future studies and analysis. Our findings illustrate that optimal wasted food management alternatives may vary when targeting different metrics and that strategies promoting cost-effectiveness may be in tension with sustainability or equity goals and vice versa. The implications of this study could be used by policy makers to evaluate how wasted food reduction measures will impact sustainability, equity, and resilience goals.
Biocement is a promising alternative to conventional cement, offering advantages in sustainability and reducing carbon footprints. However, its widespread adoption has been hindered by the relatively high production costs. This review aims to explore various strategies and advancements in biocement production that can contribute to cost reduction. Specifically, we discuss the selection of low-cost microbial growth media for microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP), the utilization of plant extractives as enzyme substitutes in enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (EICP), the substitution of urea with urine as a low-cost source of nitrogen, the exploration of affordable alternatives to calcium ions, and the valorization of ammonia/ammonium byproducts, and other pathways. The adoption of these strategies could significantly enhance biocement’s scalability and sustainability, paving the way for more eco-friendly and cost-effective construction practices.
Belum optimalnya pengelolaan sampah di Pasaman Barat seperti jumlah TPS yang belum mencukupi, sarana prasarana, sistem pengelolaan sampah open dumping, akses jalan ke TPA dan sebagainya, melatar belakangi penelitian ini.. Tujuan penelitian untuk mengetahui pola persebaran TPA dan TPS di Pasaman Barat. Jenis penelitian ini adalah mix method. Jenis data yang digunakan adalah data primer dan sekunder. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan obesrvasi, wawancara, kuesioner dan dokumentasi. Teknis analisa data menggunakan Analsisis tetangga terdekat dan analisis SWOT (Strenghts, Weakness, Oppotunities, Threats) dalam penyususnan startegi. Hasil penelitian Pola persebaran TPA dan TPS menggunakan tetangga terdekat Nearest Neighbor Ratio adalah 0.631306 mengelompok (Clusterd). Timbulan sampah di Pasaman Barat berdasarkan total penduduk 442.479 adalah 2,4 kg/org/hari. Kapasitas daya tampung TPA tersisa 80.000 m3 (8 Ha) dari 10 Ha total luas TPA. Strategi S-O (Strenghts, Oppotunities), memanfaatkan kerjasama dengan stakeholders dalam sosialisasi ke masyarakat. Strategi W-O (Weakness, Oppotunities), mengoptimalkan peraturan daerah untuk memperkuat dana operasional pengelolaan sampah. Strategi S-T (Strenghts, Threats), optimalkan SDM melalui wadah komunikasi pentingnya pengelolaan sampah. Strategi W-T (Weakness, Threats), membuat strukstur TPA dalam pengelolaan.
Abundant wood waste is generated globally, but the literature lacks a framework distinguishing sustainable versus unsustainable reuse practices. This gap hinders policy makers and stakeholders from effectively supporting responsible resource utilization. As such, this scoping review aimed to address this gap by evaluating wood waste reuse practices through ecological, financial, and social sustainability lenses. A comprehensive database search yielded 1,150 records, narrowed to 106 included studies through eligibility screening. Data on study details and sustainability factors was extracted without a formal quality appraisal. The protocol ensures a rigorous evidence-mapping approach. The findings revealed that sustainable uses included renewable energy, adsorbents, construction materials, and composting applications. However, toxic preservatives, uncontrolled emissions from burning, intensive harvesting impacts, and contamination risks from uncontrolled mulching perpetuate ecological, social, and financial challenges. Preventing contamination and managing sustainability trade-offs are key priorities. Research innovations, stringent quality control, and supportive policies are imperative to distinguish practices aligned with sustainability principles from those inadvertently causing harm. This review provides a comprehensive framework for making informed decisions to progress wood waste systems toward responsible resource utilization.
The implementation of the circular bioeconomy is now widely accepted as a critical step towards reducing the environmental burden of industrial waste and reducing the impact of this waste on climate change. The valorisation of waste using microorganisms is an attractive and fast-developing strategy capable of achieving meaningful improvements in the sustainability of the biotechnology industry. Yeasts are a powerful chassis for developing valorisation strategies and key opportunities. Thus, this study examines how waste from the food sector can be effectively targeted for valorisation by yeast. Yeasts themselves are critically important elements in the production of food and brewing, and thus, the valorisation of waste from these processes is further reviewed. Policy and regulatory challenges that may impact the feasibility of industrial applications of yeast systems in the valorisation of food waste streams are also discussed.
Waste is one of the major urban challenges faced globally today, and the severity of the challenge is further exacerbated by rapid urbanisation, growing populations and increasing per capita waste generation. As one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world, Delhi collects 11,352 t of waste every day. Without adequate segregation, most of this waste is sent to dumpsites and waste-to-energy plants, often associated with significant capital costs and environmental externalities. This paper conducts a life cycle assessment of the current waste management system and a comparative analysis with a suggested alternative scenario, where the share of recyclables and compostables going to landfills and waste-to-energy plants is reduced through adequate segregation. Our results revealed that landfills and waste-to-energy plants are associated with significant adverse environmental impacts such as climate change, soil and water acidification, freshwater eutrophication, human toxicity, and respiratory health. In comparison, compost plants showed negligible emissions per tonne of waste. The alternative scenario (i.e. reduce waste to landfill through adequate segregation) can help reduce the negative impact on all environmental indicators by an average of 23 %. We posit that the prevailing narrative of addressing the waste issue through waste-to-energy plants in Delhi goes against the country's climate neutrality targets. Instead, the circular economy approach offers simpler, faster, and more cost-effective solutions that policymakers should consider to reduce the financial and environmental load of the current and future waste management issue.
In today’s business environments driven increasingly by knowledge, the efficient use of resources largely depends on how well entrepreneurs apply innovations in managing them. Among the knowledge-based sources for increasing performance are accounting-related practices of cost management. However, there is a lack of models for constructing accounting records based on the stages of the product’s life cycle cost (LCC), methods for calculating the total cost of the LCC in relation to specific industries, and methods for identifying the stages of the LCC. Although many studies have focused on adapting to the LCC system strategically and studying its effectiveness and cost structure at different stages of the life cycle, few have considered the methodological aspects of establishing a costing system. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the most commonly used accounting and calculation methods used in manufacturing companies in Russia. The study is based on questionnaires collected in a survey of seven companies specializing in the manufacture of boilers for centralized and autonomous heating systems. In addition to interviewing experts, accounting documents were also analyzed. For the manufacturing sector, the authors proposed an accounting model based on the stages of a product’s life cycle. They also developed methods for calculating and identifying costs by stage of the product’s life cycle. These approaches could be useful for accounting and analytical staff when setting up knowledge-based accounting systems for analyzing business information, particularly for creating recordkeeping systems for LCC calculations. Additionally, these approaches could enhance the knowledge support systems for making managerial decisions.
With the acceleration of the economic development and urbanization in China, wastewater generation has sharply increased. Previous studies mostly focused on the environmental and economic performances of wastewater-activated sludge reutilization (WASR), a biological treatment of wastewater that produces solid waste. However, policy impacts and comparative analysis integrating environmental, economic, and social performances of the applications to the potential resource recovery were ignored. Therefore, this study considered the following: (1) Environmental and economic performances of WASR scenarios, such as sludge-to-electricity, fertilizer, building material, and biogas, were evaluated by life cycle assessment and life cycle cost (LCC) approaches by replacing the traditional and similar commodities on the market with a system expansion. (2) The whole life cost of these scenarios was applied to include externality, which represents the monetization of emissions to integrate environmental and economic impacts. Major pollutants that contributed to the external costs of these scenarios were identified. The net present value of each WASR scenario was compared, which provided basis for technology improvements and policymaking. (3) Through an LCC of policy scenario analysis, we found that waste disposal subsidy was vital for WASR than the corporate income tax and environmental protection tax. Finally, an evaluation system of WASR integrating environment, economy, and policy aspects was proposed, which provided references for governments and industries. Consequently, future perspectives of sludge reutilization in China and suggestions on sustainable sludge recycling systems for developing countries were deduced.
Proper end-of-life (EOL) management of mixed plastic waste remains a global challenge in both developed and developing countries as disposed plastic circulating within the ecosystem continues to increase at unprecedented rates. Presently, plastic EOL pathways are largely designed based on prevailing geographical conditions and environmental regulations across different regions. Till date, no work has been reported on the environmental and socioeconomic assessment on EOL pathway focusing on mechanical recycling of mixed plastic waste into raw ingredients for construction materials. This paper presents a life cycle assessment to characterize the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of four different plastic EOL pathways using Singapore as a case study. The present study describes how Singapore can redesign its current waste-to-resource taxonomy and reiterates the need to maximize mechanical recycling throughput of mixed plastic waste so to alleviate the reliance on thermal energies for waste valorisation and improve the overall performance of current plastic EOL pathway.
The capital goods for collection and transport of waste were quantified for different types of containers (plastic containers, cubes and steel containers) and an 18-tonnes compacting collection truck. The data were collected from producers and vendors of the bins and the truck. The service lifetime and the capacity of the goods were also assessed. Environmental impact assessment of the production of the capital goods revealed that, per tonne of waste handled, the truck had the largest contribution followed by the steel container. Large high density polyethylene (HDPE) containers had the lowest impact per tonne of waste handled. The impact of producing the capital goods for waste collection and transport cannot be neglected as the capital goods dominate (>85%) the categories human-toxicity (non-cancer and cancer), ecotoxicity, resource depletion and aquatic eutrophication, but also play a role (>13%) within the other impact categories when compared with the impacts from combustion of fuels for the collection and transport of the waste, when a transport distance of 25 km was assumed.
Purpose
Municipal solid waste (MSW) can be handled with several traditional management strategies, including landfilling, incineration, and recycling. Ethanol production from MSW is a novel strategy that has been proposed and researched for practical use; however, MSW ethanol plants are not widely applied in practice. Thus, this study has been conducted to analyze and compare the environmental and economic performance of incineration and ethanol production as alternatives to landfilling MSW.
Methods
The ISO 14040 life cycle assessment framework is employed to conduct the environmental impact assessment of three different scenarios for the two MSW management strategies based on processing 1 ton of MSW as the functional unit. The first scenario models the process of incinerating MSW and recovering energy in the form of process heat; the second scenario also includes the process of incinerating MSW but yields in the recovery of energy in the form of electricity; and the third scenario models the process of converting MSW into ethanol. The economic impacts of each scenario are then assessed by performing benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) and net present value (NPV) analyses.
Results and discussion
The results from the environmental impact assessment of each scenario reveal that scenario 2 has the highest benefits for resource availability while scenario 3 is shown to be the best alternative to avoid human health and ecosystems diversity impacts. Scenario 1 has the worst environmental performance with respect to each of these environmental endpoint indicators and has net environmental impacts. The results of the economic analysis indicate that the third scenario is the best option with respect to BCR and NPV, followed by scenarios 2 and 1, respectively. Furthermore, environmental and economic analysis results are shown to be sensitive to MSW composition.
Conclusions
It appears municipalities should prefer MSW incineration with electricity generation or MSW-to-ethanol conversion over MSW incineration with heat recovery as an alternative to landfilling. The contradiction between the environmental impact assessment results and economic analysis results demonstrates that the decision-making process is sensitive to a broad set of variables. Decisions for a specific MSW management system are subject to facility location and size, MSW composition, energy prices, and governmental policies.
Materials and energy used for construction of a hill-type landfill of 4 million m(3) were quantified in detail. The landfill is engineered with a liner and leachate collections system, as well as a gas collection and control system. Gravel and clay were the most common materials used, amounting to approximately 260 kg per tonne of waste landfilled. The environmental burdens from the extraction and manufacturing of the materials used in the landfill, as well as from the construction of the landfill, were modelled as potential environmental impacts. For example, the potential impact on global warming was 2.5 kg carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents or 0.32 milli person equivalents per tonne of waste. The potential impacts from the use of materials and construction of the landfill are low-to-insignificant compared with data reported in the literature on impact potentials of landfills in operation. The construction of the landfill is only a significant contributor to the impact of resource depletion owing to the high use of gravel and steel.
The annual rise in population growth coupled with the flourishing tourism industry in Mauritius has lead to a considerable increase in the amount of solid waste generated. In parallel, the disposal of non-biodegradable wastes, especially plastic packaging and plastic bottles, has also shown a steady rise. Improper disposal of used polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles constitutes an eyesore to the environmental landscape and is a threat to the flourishing tourism industry. It is of utmost importance, therefore, to determine a suitable disposal method for used PET bottles which is not only environmentally efficient but is also cost effective. This study investigated the environmental impacts and the cost effectiveness of four selected disposal alternatives for used PET bottles in Mauritius. The four disposal routes investigated were: 100% landfilling; 75% incineration with energy recovery and 25% landfilling; 40% flake production (partial recycling) and 60% landfilling; and 75% flake production and 25% landfilling. Environmental impacts of the disposal alternatives were determined using ISO standardized life cycle assessment (LCA) and with the support of SimaPro 7.1 software. Cost effectiveness was determined using life cycle costing (LCC). Collected data were entered into a constructed Excel-based model to calculate the different cost categories, Net present values, damage costs and payback periods. LCA and LCC results indicated that 75% flake production and 25% landfilling was the most environmentally efficient and cost-effective disposal route for used PET bottles in Mauritius.
How much time and energy are used to sort household waste, and should the time spent on sorting be taken into account? We asked a random sample of the Norwegian population about their waste sorting activities. Nine out of ten reported that they sort at least one type of waste, and on average, each of those asked reported that they use close to a half an hour a week for sorting. Four out of ten reported that they use hot water to clean the materials. On average, they are willing to pay NOK 176 a year so that others can do the sorting for them. And even though some perceive the activity as a mandatory requirement, moral motives for sorting at source are also widespread.
Pneumatic waste collection systems are becoming increasingly popular in new urban residential areas, and an attractive alternative to conventional vehicle-operated municipal solid waste (MSW) collection also in ready-built urban areas. How well pneumatic systems perform in ready-built areas is, however, an unexplored topic. In this paper, we analyze how a hypothetical stationary pneumatic waste collection system compares economically to a traditional vehicle-operated door-to-door collection system in an existing, densely populated urban area. Both pneumatic and door-to-door collection systems face disadvantages in such areas. While buildings and fixed city infrastructure increase the installation costs of a pneumatic system in existing residential areas, the limited space for waste transportation vehicles and containers cause problems for vehicle-operated waste collection systems. The method used for analyzing the cost effects of the compared waste collection systems in our case study takes into account also monetized environmental effects of both waste collection systems. As a result, we find that the door-to-door collection system is economically almost six times more superior. The dominant cost factor in the analysis is the large investment cost of the pneumatic system. The economic value of land is an important variable, as it is able to reverse the results, if the value of land saved with a pneumatic system is sufficiently high.
1 IntroductionSociety of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry(SETAC) has published a code of practice for environmentallife-cycle costing (LCC), which provides a framework forevaluating decisions with consistent, but flexible systemsboundaries as a component of product sustainabilityassessments (Swarr et al. 2011). The code of practicebuilds on an earlier monograph that summarized 3 years ofeffort by the SETAC-Europe Working Group on Life-Cycle Costing (Hunkeler et al.2008).Thecodeofpracticeis grounded in a conceptual framework for life-cyclesustainability assessment (LCSA) of products that usesdistinct analyses for each of the three pillars of sustainability,environment, economy, and social equity.LCSA ¼ LCAþ LCCþ SLCA ð1ÞLife-cycle assessment (LCA) is the only pillar that has beenstandardized to date (ISO 2006a, b). UNEP (2009)haspublished guidelines for social LCAs and is currentlydeveloping methodological sheets for impact subcategories.The code of practice reviews historical development of life-cycle methods, outlines the technical requirements and guide-lines for LCC, and illustrates various methodological choiceswith a detailed case study. The objective of the code of practiceis to provide readers with a solid understanding of how to applyLCC in parallel with LCA to stimulate additional case studiesand peer-reviewed research to further refine the methodology.The ultimate goal is to build consensus for an internationalstandard that parallels the ISO 14040 standard for LCA.2 DiscussionLCC predates LCA, and distinct and different conceptualfoundations and methodological approaches can betraced to its developmental roots in systems engineering(Blanchard 1978). There has been limited integration ofthese methods, although the value of LCC for sustainabilityassessmentshasbeenrecognized(Norris2001;Hunkelerand
The costs associated with eight food waste disposal options, dry feeding, wet feeding, composting, anaerobic digestion, co-digestion with sewage sludge, food waste disposer, incineration, and landfilling, were evaluated in the perspective of global warming and energy and/or resource recovery. An expanded system boundary was employed to compare by-products. Life cycle cost was analyzed through the entire disposal process, which included discharge, separate collection, transportation, treatment, and final disposal stages, all of which were included in the system boundary. Costs and benefits were estimated by an avoided impact. Environmental benefits of each system per 1 tonne of food waste management were estimated using carbon prices resulting from CO(2) reduction by avoided impact, as well as the prices of by-products such as animal feed, compost, and electricity. We found that the cost of landfilling was the lowest, followed by co-digestion. The benefits of wet feeding systems were the highest and landfilling the lowest.
The few construction and demolition waste (CDW) recycling plants that there are in Portugal separate the materials and then crush and sieve them prior to final delivery. These plants have limited overall capacity and the quality of the output material is not good enough for higher grade applications such as concrete and brick production. This study aims to better understand the economic implications of implementing and operating a large-scale high-end CDW recycling plant to serve a densely populated urban area in Portugal (Lisbon and its outskirts). This first part deals with the location of the plant, its design and the material entering and leaving it. There follows an economic analysis which leads to the sensitivity analysis presented in part two, which provides important conclusions for the economic viability of full-scale CDW recycling plants. The methodology used can be applied to other locations and resulted, within the regional data frame of the Lisbon Metropolitan area, on a return of the investment period of around 2 years, considering a plant capacity of 350 tonne/h, the collection of 21.8 million €/year in gate fees and the need to pay around €11.9 million €/year in running costs. Hence, there is a high profit potential in this venture, even though considering the high initial investment needs. Moreover, the venture seems economically viable even in the absence of specific regulatory government policy intervention for recycling CDW, which may indicate a clear alignment between economic viability and environmental benefits, arising from this CDW recycling plant operation.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been used extensively within the recent decade to evaluate the environmental performance of thermal Waste-to-Energy (WtE) technologies: incineration, co-combustion, pyrolysis and gasification. A critical review was carried out involving 250 individual case-studies published in 136 peer-reviewed journal articles within 1995 and 2013. The studies were evaluated with respect to critical aspects such as: (i) goal and scope definitions (e.g. functional units, system boundaries, temporal and geographic scopes), (ii) detailed technology parameters (e.g. related to waste composition, technology, gas cleaning, energy recovery, residue management, and inventory data), and (iii) modeling principles (e.g. energy/mass calculation principles, energy substitution, inclusion of capital goods and uncertainty evaluation). Very few of the published studies provided full and transparent descriptions of all these aspects, in many cases preventing an evaluation of the validity of results, and limiting applicability of data and results in other contexts. The review clearly suggests that the quality of LCA studies of WtE technologies and systems including energy recovery can be significantly improved. Based on the review, a detailed overview of assumptions and modeling choices in existing literature is provided in conjunction with practical recommendations for state-of-the-art LCA of Waste-to-Energy.
The management system for solid and liquid organic waste affects the environment and surrounding technical systems in several ways. In order to decrease the environmental impact and resource use, biological waste treatment and alternative solutions for sewage treatment are often advocated. These alternatives include increased agricultural use of waste residuals. To analyse whether such proposed systems indicate improvements for the environment and its sustainability, systems analysis is a useful method. The changes in environmental impact and resource use is not only a result of changes in waste treatment methods, but also largely a result of changes in surrounding systems (energy and agriculture) caused by changes in waste management practices. In order to perform a systems analysis, a substance-flow simulation model, the organic waste research model (ORWARE), has been used. The results are evaluated by using methodology from life cycle assessment (LCA). An economic analysis was also performed on three of the studied scenarios. The management system for solid organic waste and sewage in the municipality of Uppsala, Sweden, was studied. Three scenarios for different treatments of solid waste were analysed: incineration with heat recovery, composting, and anaerobic digestion. These three scenarios included conventional sewage treatment. A fourth scenario reviewed was anaerobic digestion of solid waste, using urine-separating toilets and separate handling of the urine fraction. The results are only valid for the case study and under the assumptions made. In this case study anaerobic digestion result in the lowest environmental impact of all the solid waste management systems, but is costly. Economically, incineration with heat recovery is the cheapest way to treat solid waste. Composting gives environmental advantages compared to incineration methods, without significantly increased costs. Urine separation, which may be implemented together with any solid waste treatment, has great advantages, particularly in its low impact on the environment. However, there is a large increase in acidification.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used in waste management to identify strategies that prevent or minimise negative impacts on ecosystems, human health or natural resources. However, the quality of the provided support to decision- and policy-makers is strongly dependent on a proper conduct of the LCA. How has LCA been applied until now? Are there any inconsistencies in the past practice? To answer these questions, we draw on a critical review of 222 published LCA studies of solid waste management systems. We analyse the past practice against the ISO standard requirements and the ILCD Handbook guidelines for each major step within the goal definition, scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation phases of the methodology. Results show that malpractices exist in several aspects of the LCA with large differences across studies. Examples are a frequent neglect of the goal definition, a frequent lack of transparency and precision in the definition of the scope of the study, e.g. an unclear delimitation of the system boundaries, a truncated impact coverage, difficulties in capturing influential local specificities such as representative waste compositions into the inventory, and a frequent lack of essential sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Many of these aspects are important for the reliability of the results. For each of them, we therefore provide detailed recommendations to practitioners of waste management LCAs.
Post-consumer plastic packaging waste (PPW) can be collected for recycling via source separation or post-separation. In source separation, households separate plastics from other waste before collection, whereas in post-separation waste is separated at a treatment centre after collection. There are also two collection schemes, either curb side or via drop-off locations. These different schemes have impact on total costs of collection at the municipal level. It can also influence the facility choices and network design. Therefore, a method which can compare costs of various collection schemes is needed.
A comprehensive cost model was developed to compare costs of municipal collection schemes of PPW. The ‘municipal waste collection cost model’ is based on variables including fixed and variable costs per vehicle, personnel cost, container or bag costs as well as on emission costs (using imaginary carbon taxes). The model can be used for decision support when strategic changes to the collection scheme of municipalities are considered. The model takes into account the characteristics of municipalities, including urbanization degree and taxation schemes for household waste management.
The model was applied to the Dutch case of post-consumer plastic packaging waste. Results showed that that in general post-separation collection has the lowest costs and curb side collection in urban municipalities without residual waste collection taxing schemes the highest. These results were supported by the conducted sensitivity analysis, which showed that higher source separation responses are negatively related to curb side collection costs. Greenhouse gas emission costs are a significant part of the total costs when collecting post-consumer plastic packaging waste due to the low density to weight ratio of the materials collect. These costs can amount to 15% of the total collection costs.
The continuously increasing solid waste generation worldwide calls for management strategies that integrate concerns for environmental sustainability. By quantifying environmental impacts of systems, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool, which can contribute to answer that call. But how, where and to which extent has it been applied to solid waste management systems (SWMSs) until now, and which lessons can be learnt from the findings of these LCA applications? To address these questions, we performed a critical review of 222 published LCA studies of SWMS. We first analysed the geographic distribution and found that the published studies have primarily been concentrated in Europe with little application in developing countries. In terms of technological coverage, they have largely overlooked application of LCA to waste prevention activities and to relevant waste types apart from household waste, e.g. construction and demolition waste. Waste management practitioners are thus encouraged to abridge these gaps in future applications of LCA. In addition to this contextual analysis, we also evaluated the findings of selected studies of good quality and found that there is little agreement in the conclusions among them. The strong dependence of each SWMS on local conditions, such as waste composition or energy system, prevents a meaningful generalisation of the LCA results as we find it in the waste hierarchy. We therefore recommend stakeholders in solid waste management to regard LCA as a tool, which, by its ability of capturing the local specific conditions in the modelling of environmental impacts and benefits of a SWMS, allows identifying critical problems and proposing improvement options adapted to the local specificities.
The present study integrates material based Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) with welfare economic Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) to evaluate resource and environmental consequences as well as welfare consequences for society of introducing biofuels in the Danish road transport sector. The integrated method focus on fossil energy consumption, CO2 emissions and total welfare economic changes within the whole LCA flow chain comprising both production of biomass and subsequent conversion into biofuel and combustion in vehicles. With regard to consequences for fossil energy consumption a global delimitation is used whereas only CO2 emissions and welfare economic consequences within Danish borders are included in the analysis. Consequently, calculated emission and welfare economic consequences can be interpreted as the consequences for Denmark of producing and using biofuels from biomass grown on Danish farm land. The method is applied with regard to production of rape diesel (rape methyl ester, RME), 1st generation ethanol from wheat and 2nd generation ethanol based on straw. Advantages and disadvantages of the LCA based material flow approach and the welfare economic based CBA approach are discussed. The influence of uncertainties on the results is evaluated illustrating the importance of paying attention to assumptions with regard to substitution of other products and resources and with regard to their relative prices.
In order to determine the optimal final destination of municipal solid waste, it is necessary to consider both monetary costs and environmental externalities, such as carbon balance and GHG production, as well as the local availability of waste-processing industrial infrastructure. In order to develop a strategy for the selection of the optimal waste management system, in the present work we consider a specific city located in Piedmont (northern Italy). The volume of municipal solid waste produced in the city is about 540,000 ton/year. To determine the best method for management and disposal of this volume, we considered three different scenarios, using the best available technologies. The scenarios included the use of both thermal processing systems (incineration and gasification plants) and other systems (mechanical separation plants, anaerobic digestion plants). The scenarios were analyzed and compared, considering environmental, construction and operating costs, in order to develop a model for making an objective comparison. The results of the analysis for this specific case revealed that direct combustion in an incineration plant delivered the best outcome for both environmental impacts and economic convenience. More generally, the comparison methodology for the scenarios can be a useful approach for determining the best solution for waste management planning for a specific locality.
Purpose
Used cooking oil (UCO) is a domestic waste generated as the result of cooking and frying food with vegetable oil. The purpose of this study is to compare the sustainability of three domestic UCO collection systems: through schools (SCH), door-to-door (DTD), and through urban collection centres (UCC), to determine which systems should be promoted for the collection of UCO in cities in Mediterranean countries.
Methods
The present paper uses the recent life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) methodology. LCSA is the combination of life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing, and social life cycle assessment (S-LCA).
Results and discussion
Of the three UCO collection systems compared, the results show that UCC presents the best values for sustainability assessment, followed by DTD and finally SCH system, although there are no substantial differences between DTD and SCH. UCC has the best environmental and economic performance but not for social component. DTD and SCH present suitable values for social performance but not for the environmental and economic components.
Conclusions
The environmental component improves when the collection points are near to citizens’ homes. Depending on the vehicle used in the collection process, the management costs and efficiency can improve. UCO collection systems that carry out different kind of waste (such as UCC) are more sustainable than those that collect only one type of waste. Regarding the methodology used in this paper, the sustainability assessment proposed is suitable for use in decision making to analyse processes, products or services, even so in social assessment an approach is needed to quantify the indicators.
Defining units for sustainability quantification is a difficult task because not all social indicators are quantifiable and comparable; some need to be adapted, raising the subjectivity of the analysis. Research into S-LCA and LCSA is recent; more research is needed in order to improve the methodology.
Solid waste minimization and recycling goals for municipalities are achievable through the installation of material recovery facilities (MRFs) and in certain solid waste management systems, government owned and operated MRFs are feasible and cost justified. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate a structured process to evaluate and determine the operational and economic feasibly of a government owned MRF that is based on financial engineering. As a companion, a case study from Lucas County, Ohio (USA) is provided that demonstrated this analysis process. In addition, the paper explores the impact of uncertainty in decision alternatives by placing a strong emphasis on economic efficiencies and a sensitivity analysis of the results to changes in the data inputs, specifically inflation, recycling levels, and recycling commodity market shifts. The key findings from the research indicate that the municipality will achieve a payback period of approximately 4 years, and a 10 years internal rate of return of 20.5%, versus the current system of out souring. The consequences of these findings, stemming from the economic and operational justification, led to the actual purchase of a MRF site for Lucas County, Ohio (USA). This research may serve as an example or model for other local governments considering the implementation of such a system.
Materials and energy used for the construction of modern waste incineration plants were quantified. The data was collected from five incineration plants (72,000-240,000tonnes per year) built in Scandinavia (Norway, Finland and Denmark) between 2006 and 2012. Concrete for the buildings was the main material used amounting to 19,000-26,000tonnes per plant. The quantification further included six main materials, electronic systems, cables and all transportation. The energy used for the actual on-site construction of the incinerators was in the range 4000-5000MWh. In terms of the environmental burden of producing the materials used in the construction, steel for the building and the machinery contributed the most. The material and energy used for the construction corresponded to the emission of 7-14kg CO2 per tonne of waste combusted throughout the lifetime of the incineration plant. The assessment showed that, compared to data reported in the literature on direct emissions from the operation of incinerators, the environmental impacts caused by the construction of buildings and machinery (capital goods) could amount to 2-3% with respect to kg CO2 per tonne of waste combusted.
Purpose
Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is a field of active development. The last decade has seen prolific publication of new impact assessment methods covering many different impact categories and providing characterization factors that often deviate from each other for the same substance and impact. The LCA standard ISO 14044 is rather general and unspecific in its requirements and offers little help to the LCA practitioner who needs to make a choice. With the aim to identify the best among existing characterization models and provide recommendations to the LCA practitioner, a study was performed for the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC).
Methods
Existing LCIA methods were collected and their individual characterization models identified at both midpoint and endpoint levels and supplemented with other environmental models of potential use for LCIA. No new developments of characterization models or factors were done in the project. From a total of 156 models, 91 were short listed as possible candidates for a recommendation within their impact category. Criteria were developed for analyzing the models within each impact category. The criteria addressed both scientific qualities and stakeholder acceptance. The criteria were reviewed by external experts and stakeholders and applied in a comprehensive analysis of the short-listed characterization models (the total number of criteria varied between 35 and 50 per impact category). For each impact category, the analysis concluded with identification of the best among the existing characterization models. If the identified model was of sufficient quality, it was recommended by the JRC. Analysis and recommendation process involved hearing of both scientific experts and stakeholders.
Results and recommendations
Recommendations were developed for 14 impact categories at midpoint level, and among these recommendations, three were classified as “satisfactory” while ten were “in need of some improvements” and one was so weak that it has “to be applied with caution.” For some of the impact categories, the classification of the recommended model varied with the type of substance. At endpoint level, recommendations were only found relevant for three impact categories. For the rest, the quality of the existing methods was too weak, and the methods that came out best in the analysis were classified as “interim,” i.e., not recommended by the JRC but suitable to provide an initial basis for further development.
Discussion, conclusions, and outlook
The level of characterization modeling at midpoint level has improved considerably over the last decade and now also considers important aspects like geographical differentiation and combination of midpoint and endpoint characterization, although the latter is in clear need for further development. With the realization of the potential importance of geographical differentiation comes the need for characterization models that are able to produce characterization factors that are representative for different continents and still support aggregation of impact scores over the whole life cycle. For the impact categories human toxicity and ecotoxicity, we are now able to recommend a model, but the number of chemical substances in common use is so high that there is a need to address the substance data shortage and calculate characterization factors for many new substances. Another unresolved issue is the need for quantitative information about the uncertainties that accompany the characterization factors. This is still only adequately addressed for one or two impact categories at midpoint, and this should be a focus point in future research. The dynamic character of LCIA research means that what is best practice will change quickly in time. The characterization methods presented in this paper represent what was best practice in 2008–2009.
The primary goal of managing MSW incineration residues is to avoid any impact on human health or the environment. Incineration residues consist of bottom ash, which is generally considered as rather harmless and fly ash which usually contains compounds which are potentially harmful for public health. Small quantities of ash (both bottom and fly) are produced currently in Greece, mainly from the healthcare waste incineration facility in Attica region. Once incineration plants for MSW (currently under planning) are constructed in Greece, the produced ash quantities will increase highly. Thus, it is necessary to organize, already at this stage, a roadmap towards disposal/recovery methods of these ash quantities expected. Certain methods, related to the treatment of the future generated ash which are more appropriate to be implemented in Greece are highlighted in the present paper. The performed analysis offers a waste management approach, having 2016 as a reference year for two different incineration rates; 30% and 100% of the remaining MSW after recycling process. The results focus on the two greater regions of Greece: Attica and Central Macedonia. The quantity of potential future ash generation ranges from 137 to 459kt for Attica region and from 62 to 207kt for central Macedonia region depending on the incineration rate applied. Three alternative scenarios for the treatment of each kind of ash are compiled and analysed. Metal recovery and reuse as an aggregate in concrete construction proved to be the most advantageous -in terms of economy-bottom ash management scenario. Concerning management of the fly ash, chemical treatment with phosphoric solution addition results to be the lowest total treatment cost and is considered as the most profitable solution. The proposed methodology constitutes a safe calculation model for operators of MSW incineration plants regardless of the region or country they are located in.
The growing stream of municipal solid waste (MSW) requires a sustainable waste management strategy. At the same time, addressing climate change and security of energy supply concerns requires increased use of low-carbon and domestic sources of energy. This paper assesses the economic and environmental aspects of waste management options focusing on waste-to-energy (WtE) as a renewable resource. We discuss how WtE and recycling are compatible as waste treatment options. The paper then presents a social cost–benefit analysis of selected waste management scenarios for the UK focusing on specific waste management targets and carbon prices and compares them with coal-fired electricity. The results indicate that meeting the waste management targets of the EU Directive are socially more cost-effective than the current practice. The cost-effectiveness improves substantially with higher carbon prices. The findings show that WtE can be an important part of both waste management strategy and renewable energy policy although achieving the full potential of WtE requires development of heat delivery networks.
In nearly all private industry applications of LCA, the decision making situations which LCA addresses must also eventually take the economic consequences of alternative products or product designs into account. However, neither the internal nor external economic aspects of the decisions are within the scope of developed LCA methodology, nor are they properly addressed by existing LCA tools. This traditional separation of life cycle environmental assessment from economic analysis has limited the influence and relevance of LCA for decision making, and left uncharacterized the important relationships and trade-offs between the economic and life cycle environmental performance of alternative product design decision scenarios. This presentation demonstrates how full-scale, standard methods of LCA can and have been tightly, logically, and practically integrated with standard methods for cost accounting, life cycle cost analysis, and scenario-based economic risk modeling. The result is an ability to take both economic and environmental performance – and their tradeoff relationships – into account in product/process design decision making. We review and compare the design philosophies behind two different tools for integrating economics and LCA, and present illustrative case studies of the application of each to real-world problems. ORIGINS OF THE GAP BETWEEN LCA AND LCC
As environmental awareness rises, integrated solid waste management (WM) schemes are increasingly being implemented all over the world. The different WM schemes usually address issues such as landfilling restrictions (mainly due to methane emissions and competing land use), packaging directives and compulsory recycling goals. These schemes are, in general, designed at a national or regional level, whereas local conditions and constraints are sometimes neglected. When national WM top-down policies, in addition to setting goals, also dictate the methods by which they are to be achieved, local authorities lose their freedom to optimize their operational WM schemes according to their specific characteristics. There are a myriad of implementation options at the local level, and by carrying out a bottom-up approach the overall national WM system will be optimal on economic and environmental scales. This paper presents a model for optimizing waste strategies at a local level and evaluates this effect at a national level. This is achieved by using a waste assessment model which enables us to compare both the economic viability of several WM options at the local (single municipal authority) level, and aggregated results for regional or national levels. A test case based on various WM approaches in Israel (several implementations of mixed and separated waste) shows that local characteristics significantly influence WM costs, and therefore the optimal scheme is one under which each local authority is able to implement its best-fitting mechanism, given that national guidelines are kept. The main result is that strict national/regional WM policies may be less efficient, unless some type of local flexibility is implemented. Our model is designed both for top-down and bottom-up assessment, and can be easily adapted for a wide range of WM option comparisons at different levels.
Background, aim, and scope
Municipal solid waste (MSW) management organizations commonly address both waste treatment and diversion activities in their management plans, yet the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to MSW rarely incorporates the effects of waste prevention activities (WPAs) in an explicit manner. The primary objective of this paper is to further develop the methodological options for attributional LCAs of MSW to address waste prevention, including product reuse.
Main features
This article introduces the waste management and prevention (WasteMAP) LCA, a conceptual model that applies system expansion to generate a hybrid of the traditional product and waste LCA. The WasteMAP LCA, unlike the traditional LCA of MSW, can be used to compare functionally equivalent MSW management scenarios incorporating both treatment and prevention. This functional equivalence necessitates that waste prevention takes place through dematerialization. This form of WPA is analogous to waste management techniques such as landfilling in that it does not affect the functional output (product services) of MSW-generating product systems.
Results
Integral to the WasteMAP LCA is the requirement that the sum of the MSW managed through treatment and prevention, and the level of consumption of product services contributing to MSW generation, are identical for each scenario. A partial abandonment of the zero-burden assumption is also required. Consequently, product life cycles associated with WPAs, excluding the waste treatment stages, comprise the ‘upstream’ component of the system boundary, while the ‘downstream’ component encompasses the waste treatment life cycle. WasteMAP also possesses primary and secondary functional units, with the former accounting for the amount of waste managed, and the latter depicting the product services provided by the product systems responsible for the waste targeted for prevention.
Discussion
The WasteMAP LCA method can be used to identify in the results the burdens and avoided burdens attributed to waste prevention, recycling, biological and thermal treatments, as well as landfilling, within a particular MSW management system. This method also distinguishes itself through its ability to evaluate scenarios that target the prevention of particular waste streams to obtain downstream efficiency gains for the management of all waste materials.
Conclusions
An attributional LCA of MSW can be applied to a wider array of possible waste management scenarios, including those with waste prevention, by expanding the system boundary, and in the case of waste prevention through dematerialization, by introducing an additional type of functional unit.
The main aim of this study was to evaluate the costs and environmental impacts induced by a fixed model of MSW kerbside separate collection system for communities up to 10,000 inhabitants, in order to evaluate the convenience for the smaller municipalities to unite and form more economically and environmentally sound systems. This topic is important not only due to the large number of small municipalities (e.g. in Italy 72% of the municipalities has less than 5000 inhabitants) but also to the fact that separate collection systems are typically designed to take into account only the technical and economic aspects, which is a practice but not acceptable in the light of the sustainable development paradigm. In economic terms, between 1000 and 4000 inhabitants, the annual per capita cost for vehicles and personnel decreased, with a maximum at approximately 180€/inhabitants/year; while, from 5000 up to 10,000 inhabitants, the annual per capita cost was practically constant and equal to about 80€/inhabitants/year. For the municipalities of less than 5000 inhabitants, from an economic point of view the aggregation is always advantageous. The environmental impacts were calculated by means of the Life Cycle Assessment tool SimaPro 7.1, while the economic-environmental convenience was evaluated by combining in a simple multicriteria analysis, the annual total per capita cost (€/inhabitants/year) and the annual total per capita environmental impact (kEco-indicator point/inhabitants/year), giving the same importance to each criteria. The analysis was performed by means of the Paired Comparison Technique using the Simple Additive Weighting method. The economic and environmental convenience of the aggregation diminishes with the size of the municipalities: for less than 4000 inhabitants, the aggregation was almost always advantageous (91.7%); while, for more than or equal to 5000 inhabitants, the aggregation was convenient only in 33.3% of the cases. On the whole, out of 45 cases examined, for the municipalities from 1000 to 9000 inhabitants, the aggregation was both economically and environmentally convenient in 60.0% of the cases.
Especially in the last two decades of an increasingly-competitive business environment, dwindling resources and an ever-increasing need to obtain value for money in all areas of corporate activity, it has become essential that all available resources be used optimally (Griffith, J. W. and Keely, B. J., Cost Engineering, 1978, September/October, 165–168). Physical assets form the basic infrastructure of all businesses and their effective management is essential to overall success. It has thus become essential to plan and monitor assets throughout their entire life cycle, from the development/procurement stage through to eventual disposal. Life cycle costing∗ is concerned with optimising value for money in the ownership of physical assets by taking into consideration all the cost factors relating to the asset during its operational life. Optimising the trade-off between those cost factors will give the minimum life cycle cost of the asset. This process involves estimation of costs on a whole life basis before making a choice to purchase an asset from the various alternatives available. Life cycle cost of an asset can, very often, be many times the initial purchase or investment cost (Hart, J. M. S., Tetrotechnology Handbook, p. 22, HMSO, London, 1978; Hysom, J. L., Journal of Property Management, 1979, 44, 332–337). It is important that management should realise the source and magnitude of lifetime costs so that effective action can subsequently be taken to control them. This approach to decision making encourages a long-term outlook to the investment decision-making process rather than attempting to save money in the short term by buying assets simply with lower initial acquisition cost. It is suggested project managers should familiarise themselves with what the approach involves, to better appreciate how they might then contribute to the enhanced quality decision making which it makes possible.
This paper examines some possibilities and limitations of linking economic information to an life cycle assessment, LCA, when studying municipal waste management systems. A terminology and methodology for economic assessment of municipal waste management systems is proposed and tested through a case study. The methodology consists of a financial LCC, life cycle costing, (which is used in parallel with an LCA) and an environmental LCC (functioning as a consecutive, weighting tool). In the case study, the financial LCC covers all the costs incurred by the extended waste management system, as though the LCA system was a single economic actor. The environmental LCC uses three different weighting methods to monetarise environmental effects such as emissions and resource use. As both LCCs use the same unit of account, they can easily be added together to a welfare economic tool. This step-by-step aggregation leads to a transparent, reproducible analysis method. A conclusion is that the methodology facilitates the analysis, but that problems remain as municipal waste management often diverge from existing economic systems.
This paper evaluates the two well-known final waste disposal methods, incineration and landfilling. In particular we compare the social cost of two best-available technologies using a point estimate based on private and environmental cost data for the Netherlands. Not only does our comparison allow for Waste-to-Energy incineration plants but for landfills as well. The data provide support for the widespread policy preference for incineration over landfilling only if the analysis is restricted to environmental costs alone and includes savings of both energy and material recovery. Gross private costs, however, are so much higher for incineration, that landfilling is the social cost minimizing option at the margin even in a densely populated country such as the Netherlands. Furthermore, we show that our result generalizes to other European countries and probably to the USA. Implications for waste policy are discussed as well. Proper treatment of and energy recovery from landfills seem to be the most important targets for waste policy. Finally, WTE plants are a very expensive way to save on climate change emissions.
Accessible and transparent data on the social costs of externalities is crucial to waste management researchers, decision-makers, and managers, if waste management strategies are to be successfully analyzed and implemented. The primary objective of this study, which is based on a thorough review of existing literature and research, was to assist the abovementioned in their decision-making with reliable recent data, by mapping, gathering, analyzing, and comparing different valuation results of external costs associated with various types of pollution and disamenities related to landfilling and incineration of solid waste.The second objective was to assess the suitability and reliability of various valuation methods and techniques that were implemented in the reviewed valuation studies, as well as the transferability of valuations across sites.The paper focuses on studies conducted since 1990, because in dynamic fields such as the waste sector, externalities, and valuation, it is essential to stay current with the most recent information and valuations.We discuss the issues and the limits of the valuation techniques and analyze the estimates of all the studies, presenting the results in the form of intervals and averages of damage costs. In spite of the inconsistencies evident in the variability in the results we reviewed, the outcome of this first comprehensive critical analysis is significant and the valuations obtained in this study provide estimates of orders of magnitude of external costs that can be used by decision makers in the waste sector to address important policy questions associated with social welfare.
Ten LCC-oriented environmental accounting tools suggested as useful in environmental decision-making have been identified. However, their implementation in the building industry seems to be limited, which opens up for a conceptual discussion. The purpose of this article is to discuss theoretical assumptions and the practical usefulness of the LCC approach in making environmentally responsible investment decisions. LCC's monetary unit and extended scope may speak in favour of using LCC but LCC fails to handle irreversible decisions, neglects items that have no owner and does not consider costs to future generations. Moreover, LCC does not take into account the decision makers’ limited ability to make rational decisions under uncertainty. LCC's practical usefulness is constrained by its oversimplification to a monetary unit, the lack of reliable data, complexity of the building process and conceptual confusions. To handle these inconsistencies in future development of environmental decision support tools three research solutions are proposed.
Different waste treatment options for municipal solid waste have been studied in a systems analysis. Different combinations of incineration, materials recycling of separated plastic and cardboard containers, and biological treatment (anaerobic digestion and composting) of biodegradable waste, were studied and compared to landfilling. The evaluation covered use of energy resources, environmental impact and financial and environmental costs. In the study, a calculation model (Orware) based on methodology from life cycle assessment (LCA) was used. Case studies were performed in three Swedish municipalities: Uppsala, Stockholm, and Älvdalen.The study shows that reduced landfilling in favour of increased recycling of energy and materials lead to lower environmental impact, lower consumption of energy resources, and lower economic costs. Landfilling of energy-rich waste should be avoided as far as possible, partly because of the negative environmental impacts from landfilling, but mainly because of the low recovery of resources when landfilling.Differences between materials recycling, nutrient recycling and incineration are small but in general recycling of plastic is somewhat better than incineration and biological treatment somewhat worse.When planning waste management, it is important to know that the choice of waste treatment method affects processes outside the waste management system, such as generation of district heating, electricity, vehicle fuel, plastic, cardboard, and fertiliser.
We combined life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) with economic analysis of social life cycle costs (SLCC) to investigate five alternatives for newspaper waste management. The alternatives consisted of various recovery and treatment methods applicable to newspaper in a separately collected paper fraction and to newspaper in mixed waste. We linked LCIA and SLCC to each other at three different stages. First, we used LCIA to rank our alternatives and asked how this ranking relates to the SLCC associated with each alternative. Second, we solved the cost minimizing problem and asked how this purely economic ranking relates to our LCIA ranking. Third, we solved the cost minimizing problem when external costs from the use of fossil fuels were included and then compared the solution to the LCIA results. Many useful features emerged. Tying economic analysis firmly to the steps of LCA helps to produce consistent SLCCs. Economic analysis can also be helpful in defining the boundaries of the product system and to facilitate decisions on avoided impacts. Finally, given that environmental policies usually involve trade-offs between environmental and economic factors, economic analysis conducted consistently with LCA complements LCA in a way that can be expected to make the results of the analysis more useful for policy making.
The importance of cost planning for solid waste management (SWM) in industrialising regions (IR) is not well recognised. The approaches used to estimate costs of SWM can broadly be classified into three categories - the unit cost method, benchmarking techniques and developing cost models using sub-approaches such as cost and production function analysis. These methods have been developed into computer programmes with varying functionality and utility. IR mostly use the unit cost and benchmarking approach to estimate their SWM costs. The models for cost estimation, on the other hand, are used at times in industrialised countries, but not in IR. Taken together, these approaches could be viewed as precedents that can be modified appropriately to suit waste management systems in IR. The main challenges (or problems) one might face while attempting to do so are a lack of cost data, and a lack of quality for what data do exist. There are practical benefits to planners in IR where solid waste problems are critical and budgets are limited.
This study evaluates the environmental performance and discounted costs of the incineration and landfilling of municipal solid waste that is ready for the final disposal while accounting for existing waste diversion initiatives, using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Parameters such as changing waste generation quantities, diversion rates and waste composition were also considered. Two scenarios were assessed in this study on how to treat the waste that remains after diversion. The first scenario is the status quo, where the entire residual waste was landfilled whereas in the second scenario approximately 50% of the residual waste was incinerated while the remainder is landfilled. Electricity was produced in each scenario. Data from the City of Toronto was used to undertake this study. Results showed that the waste diversion initiatives were more effective in reducing the organic portion of the waste, in turn, reducing the net electricity production of the landfill while increasing the net electricity production of the incinerator. Therefore, the scenario that incorporated incineration performed better environmentally and contributed overall to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions because of the displacement of power plant emissions; however, at a noticeably higher cost. Although landfilling proves to be the better financial option, it is for the shorter term. The landfill option would require the need of a replacement landfill much sooner. The financial and environmental effects of this expenditure have yet to be considered.
A critical assumption of studies assessing comparatively waste management options concerns the constant average cost for selective collection regardless the source separation level (SSL) reached, and the neglect of the mass constraint. The present study compares alternative waste management scenarios through the development of a desktop model that tries to remove the above assumption. Several alternative scenarios based on different combinations of energy and materials recovery are applied to two imaginary areas modelled in order to represent a typical Northern Italian setting. External costs and benefits implied by scenarios are also considered. Scenarios are compared on the base of the full cost for treating the total waste generated in the area. The model investigates the factors that influence the relative convenience of alternative scenarios.
The external (environmental and social) costs of landfilling (e.g. emissions to air, soil and water; and 'disamenities' such as odours and pests) are difficult to quantify in monetary terms, and are therefore not generally reflected in waste disposal charges or taken into account in decision making regarding waste management options. This results in a bias against alternatives such as recycling, which may be more expensive than landfilling from a purely financial perspective, but preferable from an environmental and social perspective. There is therefore a need to quantify external costs in monetary terms, so that different disposal options can be compared on the basis of their overall costs to society (financial plus external costs). This study attempts to estimate the external costs of landfilling in the City of Cape Town for different scenarios, using the benefits transfer method (for emissions) and the hedonic pricing method (for disamenities). Both methods (in particular the process of transferring and adjusting estimates from one study site to another) are described in detail, allowing the procedures to be replicated elsewhere. The results show that external costs are currently R111 (in South African Rands, or approximately US$16) per tonne of waste, although these could decline under a scenario in which energy is recovered, or in which the existing urban landfills are replaced with a new regional landfill.
Landfills receiving a mix of waste, including organics, have developed dramatically over the last 3–4 decades; from open dumps to engineered facilities with extensive controls on leachate and gas. The conventional municipal landfill will in most climates produce a highly contaminated leachate and a significant amount of landfill gas. Leachate controls may include bottom liners and leachate collection systems as well as leachate treatment prior to discharge to surface water. Gas controls may include oxidizing top covers, gas collection systems with flares or gas utilization systems for production of electricity and heat.
Municipal solid waste incineration contributes with 20% of the heat supplied to the more than 400 district heating networks in Denmark. In evaluation of the environmental consequences of this heat production, the typical approach has been to assume that other (fossil) fuels could be saved on a 1:1 basis (e.g. 1GJ of waste heat delivered substitutes for 1GJ of coal-based heat). This paper investigates consequences of waste-based heat substitution in two specific Danish district heating networks and the energy-associated interactions between the plants connected to these networks. Despite almost equal electricity and heat efficiencies at the waste incinerators connected to the two district heating networks, the energy and CO(2) accounts showed significantly different results: waste incineration in one network caused a CO(2) saving of 48 kg CO(2)/GJ energy input while in the other network a load of 43 kg CO(2)/GJ. This was caused mainly by differences in operation mode and fuel types of the other heat producing plants attached to the networks. The paper clearly indicates that simple evaluations of waste-to-energy efficiencies at the incinerator are insufficient for assessing the consequences of heat substitution in district heating network systems. The paper also shows that using national averages for heat substitution will not provide a correct answer: local conditions need to be addressed thoroughly otherwise we may fail to assess correctly the heat recovery from waste incineration.
Recycling of paper and glass from household waste is an integrated part of waste management in Denmark, however, increased recycling is a legislative target. The questions are: how much more can the recycling rate be increased through improvements of collection schemes when organisational and technical limitations are respected, and what will the environmental and economic consequences be? This was investigated in a case study of a municipal waste management system. Five scenarios with alternative collection systems for recyclables (paper, glass, metal and plastic packaging) were assessed by means of a life cycle assessment and an assessment of the municipality's costs. Kerbside collection would provide the highest recycling rate, 31% compared to 25% in the baseline scenario, but bring schemes with drop-off containers would also be a reasonable solution. Collection of recyclables at recycling centres was not recommendable because the recycling rate would decrease to 20%. In general, the results showed that enhancing recycling and avoiding incineration was recommendable because the environmental performance was improved in several impact categories. The municipal costs for collection and treatment of waste were reduced with increasing recycling, mainly because the high cost for incineration was avoided. However, solutions for mitigation of air pollution caused by increased collection and transport should be sought.
Life Cycle Assessment is a tool to assess the environmental impacts and resources used throughout a product's life cycle, i.e., from raw material acquisition, via production and use phases, to waste management. The methodological development in LCA has been strong, and LCA is broadly applied in practice. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of recent developments of LCA methods. The focus is on some areas where there has been an intense methodological development during the last years. We also highlight some of the emerging issues. In relation to the Goal and Scope definition we especially discuss the distinction between attributional and consequential LCA. For the Inventory Analysis, this distinction is relevant when discussing system boundaries, data collection, and allocation. Also highlighted are developments concerning databases and Input-Output and hybrid LCA. In the sections on Life Cycle Impact Assessment we discuss the characteristics of the modelling as well as some recent developments for specific impact categories and weighting. In relation to the Interpretation the focus is on uncertainty analysis. Finally, we discuss recent developments in relation to some of the strengths and weaknesses of LCA.
This study compares the social costs and environmental benefits of collecting single use drink containers through the Danish deposit system with the social costs and benefits of treating the containers as part of the municipal waste-disposal system. It focuses on single use polyethylene terphthalate and glass bottles, and steel and aluminium cans. The social costs of handling these containers in the deposit system includes the costs of collection, sorting, and transportation, adjusted against the profit from selling the collected material for recycling. The social cost of incinerating these containers as municipal waste consists of the expenses for the collection, incineration of the containers and disposal of ashes. If there is any income from energy generation accompanying incineration, this is adjusted against costs. The main environmental effects related to both strategies are quantified, valuated and included in the assessment. The results of the analysis show that there are significant social costs compared to the benefits connected with the new deposit system. This is true for all four types of single use drink containers examined. All in all, Denmark bears a net social cost of 6.7 to 8.1 million Euros per year compared to a baseline of incineration with energy recovery.
This two-part paper assesses four strategies for energy recovery from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) by dedicated Waste-To-Energy (WTE) plants. In strategy 1, the residue of Material Recovery (MR) is fed directly to a grate combustor, while in strategy 2 the grate combustor comes downstream of light mechanical treatment. In strategies 3 and 4, the MR residue is converted into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), in a fluidized cumbuster bed. The results of Part A, devoted to mass and energy balances, clearly show that pre-treating the MR residue in order to increase the heating value of the feedstock fed to the WTE plant has marginal effects on the energy efficiency of the WTE plant. When considering the efficiency of the whole strategy of waste management, the energy balances show that the more thorough the pre-treatment, the smaller the amount of energy recovered per unit of MR residue. Starting from the heat/mass balances illustrated in Part A, Part B examines the environmental impacts and economics of the various strategies by means of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Results show that treating the MR residues ahead of the WTE plant does not provide environmental or economic benefits. RDF production worsens almost all impact indicators because it reduces net electricity production and thus the displacement of power plant emissions; it also increases costs, because the benefits of improving the quality of the material fed to the WTE plant do not compensate the cost of such improvement.