Evaluation of municipal solid waste management system of Quito - Ecuador through life cycle assessment approach.

Christian Orlando Camacho López,Ángel Fabián Chicaiza Ortiz,Vanessa Pamela Navarrete Villa,Cristhian David Chicaiza Ortiz

doi:10.18225/lalca.v4i0.5206

Abstract

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the suitable processing of waste through the use of landfills is around 55%, while the local governments with municipal solid waste (MSW) management plans are around 20%. In Quito, for instance, approximately 2000 ton/day of solid waste are collected, and disposed in El Inga Landfill. The objective of this study is evaluating the MSW management of Quito through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. For achieving this goal, the ISO 14040 methodology was followed and SimaPro 8.4 was used as analysis software. The functional unit used is 1 ton of MSW, while, the material of study was the waste generated in households, commercial sector, schools and markets; whose values were obtained by the public companies EMASEO-EP, EMGIRS-EP, as well as from the open-access data of the city. The results show that using of biogas from the landfill allows the maximum saving of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Therefore, the biogas plant is the process with less environmental impact. The compaction and transportation of MSW displayed a slightly higher impact comparing with the previous process, presenting the second-best environmental performance. On the other hand, the leachate treatment shows the greatest environmental impact according to the model, despite of the effluents does not exceed the permissible limits of the environmental Ecuadorian legislation. The researchers consider suitable the analysis of composting and anaerobic digestion techniques as complementary options to reduce this environmental impact, due to the high organic fraction in the analyzed waste

Highlights

Waste represent a significant challenge for human health and environment, especially in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean (LA&C), where the implementation of modern technologies of municipal solid waste (MSW) management and applicative approaches like the Circular Economy are delayed or nulled (Center for Clean Air Policy 2018; Goicochea, Fabregat 2015)
The present study evaluates the MSW management system of Quito - Ecuador through life cycle assessment approach, focusing on the management of domestic and commercial waste, because they are generated massively and continuously, representing an important environmental load
The MSW management in Quito was analyzed in four stages: biogas generation, compaction, leachate treatment, and transportation

Summary

Introduction

Waste represent a significant challenge for human health and environment, especially in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean (LA&C), where the implementation of modern technologies of MSW management and applicative approaches like the Circular Economy are delayed or nulled (Center for Clean Air Policy 2018; Goicochea, Fabregat 2015). Open dumps are still high in the region, most countries are trying to eradicate them, and adopting landfills. For disposing MSW are sanitary landfills 36%, controlled landfills 25%, and uncontrolled dump sites 33% (Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo 2015; Margallo et al 2019). In Ecuador, around 11341 tons of waste are generated daily, that is, approximately 4139512 tons/year, of which 61.4% are organic, 9.4% paper or cardboard, 11% plastic, 2.6% glass and 2.2% scrap. The increase in the generation of MSW has slow down its management by need of high economic investment, representing a social, economic, and primarily environmental concern. 80% of the 221 GADs dispose their waste in open dumps, ravines and on the riverbanks, and only 20% dispose their waste in manual, mechanized and shared sanitary landfills (Ministerio de Ambiente del Ecuador 2014)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion