Assessing the sustainability of municipal solid waste management using life-cycle analysis
- 1 August 2022
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Thomas Telford Ltd. in Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Waste and Resource Management
- Vol. 175 (3), 64-74
- https://doi.org/10.1680/jwarm.21.00018
Abstract
Various municipal solid waste management technologies were evaluated using life-cycle analysis. The study aimed to compare different municipal solid waste management approaches: landfill with composting, anaerobic digestion combined with landfill, incineration, and anaerobic digestion combined with incineration. The Impact 2002+ approach and Simapro 9.1.1.1 software using the Ecoinvent v3.6 database were used to compare environmental impacts. The study showed that landfill with composting had the highest environmental impact due to its high potential of global warming and depletion in ecosystem quality, while other scenarios showed reduced impacts. Anaerobic digestion combined with incineration was found to have least environmental impact, mainly because of energy recovery from anaerobic digestion. The goal of the study was to determine more environmentally sustainable alternatives for municipal solid waste management using life-cycle assessment within the system boundary.Keywords
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