Abstract
An efficient and effective waste management system is one of the key issues for urban areas. Such a waste management system should be effective and economically viable with minimal environmental impact. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is an effective tool for identifying and assessing environmental impacts, it also enables comparing alternative waste management options. The aim of this study is to identify and assess the environmental impacts caused by the waste management system of mixed municipal waste for the city of Krakow for the year 2017. Three scenarios are evaluated for mixed waste: 1) incineration in a new waste-to-energy plant, 2) mechanical-biological treatment (MBT), ballast and stabilized waste is landfilled, refuse derived fuel (RDF) is produced but not incinerated, 3) treatment in the MBT plant, with incineration of RDF in the waste-to-energy plant. The results of modelling show that all scenarios exert a negative impact on the environment in some impact categories, while in other categories - a positive impact. Taking into account the values in all impact categories, the scenario with the lowest overall environmental impact is MBT with incineration.
Highlights
An efficient and effective waste management system is one of the key issues for urban areas, especially in terms of the infrastructure of waste facilities
Avoided impacts result from the saving of fossil fuels through the production of electricity and heat in the waste-to-energy plant, and a lower emission of greenhouse gases as well as the recycling of ferrous and non-ferrous metals separated from bottom ash
The high values in toxicity categories are due to the treatment of fly ash and APC residues in the ferrox stabilisation process (Geodur), with iron sulphate and cement
Summary
An efficient and effective waste management system is one of the key issues for urban areas, especially in terms of the infrastructure of waste facilities. Municipal waste generation strongly depends on society’s affluence, consumption level, and economic development, establishing a sustainable system for waste collection, recycling, recovery and disposal is challenging for modern cities Such a waste management system should be effective and economically viable, and its environmental impact should be minimal. This enables the evaluation of different waste technologies with different patterns of energy consumption or production, and different levels of material recovery. Performing LCA for waste management is a very complex task and it is usually done with a dedicated model
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