Holistic Sustainability Assessment of an Improved Organic Waste Collection System and Its Valorization Through Insects
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HOLISTIC SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT OF AN IMPROVED ORGANIC WASTE COLLECTION SYSTEM AND ITS VALORIZATION THROUGH INSECTS ECO-INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR GHENT AND DESTELBERGEN. Number of words: 23 314 María Ignacia Rodríguez Escobar Student number: 01808626 Academic promotor: Prof. dr. ir. Jo Dewulf Non-academic supervisor: Tom Claeys (IVAGO) Tutors: Dr. ir. Sue Ellen Taelman , Dr. David Sanjuan Delmás Master’s Dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of International Master of Science in Sustainable and Innovative Natural Resource Management Academic Year: 2019 - 2020 Deze pagina is niet beschikbaar omdat ze persoonsgegevens bevat. Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent, 2020. This page is not available because it contains personal information. Ghent University, Library, 2020. Acknowledgements This master thesis has been the culmination of my studies of International Master of Science in Sustainable and Innovative Natural Resource Management (SINReM) at Ghent University, Uppsala Universitet, and Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, with the valuable support of the EIT Raw Materials through the EIT AVSA scholarship. This thesis has come under the promotion of Prof. Jo Dewulf, to whom I would like to express gratitude for always pushing and challenging me with critical questioning and constructive suggestions. Furthermore, I would like to extend these acknowledgements to my two supervisors, Dr. ir. Sue Ellen Taelman and Dr. David Sanjuan Delmás, because without their constant support, questioning and coaching, this work could not have been possible. Both of them were extremely present along the way and were always more than available to answer all my doubts and questions. I would like to also thank Tom Claeys who listened carefully to my propositions, suggested more ideas to look at and was of course key for the data collection of this thesis. Lastly, I would like to thank all the people that supported me throughout these months of hard work. First of all, my family, who has always been there for me from the other side of the world, by asking me about my progress and achievements, even in these uncertain times. My partner, who did everything for me when the situation was becoming more stressful, especially while this research was coming towards the end. Finally, my friends who, even when busy with their own research, were always there for me to turn every hard situation into a funny one. Ghent, June 2020 Maria Ignacia Rodríguez Escobar 3 | P a g e Preamble The work of this thesis was intended to be in three parts. First, the literature study and secondly, the most intensive part, which was the data collection for the modelling of different scenarios. Finally, the last step was the modelling and extraction of results in the software Simapro 9. This software was intended to be used in a computer owned by the university. Luckily, the coronavirus situation did not directly affect the first two parts of the research. However, it did become more challenging to organise the computer use with other students and supervisors who also needed it. I believe that this step would have been much more efficient without the measures taken against the coronavirus, since the laptop would have stayed at the university, where the access to it would have been much faster for all. In a more personal note, being away from my family made it really hard to combine all the work I had to do, while worrying about their safety. Several people in my family work in the health sector in Chile, where the conditions are not optimal and therefore, in the back of my head this factor was always present. However, I have a strong support system here in Belgium, which was key to keep a healthy mental state throughout all of this. “This preamble was drawn up after consultation between the student and the supervisor and is approved by both.” 4 | P a g e Contents I Literature review ............................................................................................................................................... 11 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 11 1.1 Circular Economy ............................................................................................................................... 11 1.2 Waste ..................................................................................................................................................... 12 2. Circularity in waste management systems ................................................................................................ 15 2.1 Urban and industrial symbiosis ......................................................................................................... 15 2.2 Influence of collection schemes in waste management systems ................................................. 16 2.3 Valorization of organic waste into feed and food ingredients ..................................................... 17 2.4 Sustainability assessments for waste management systems .......................................................... 20 3. Objectives of the thesis ............................................................................................................................... 22 II Materials and Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 23 4. Description of the scenarios ....................................................................................................................... 23 4.1 Reference scenario (Status Quo) ...................................................................................................... 23 4.2 Eco-innovative scenarios ................................................................................................................... 27 5. Sustainability impact assessment ................................................................................................................ 31 5.1 Goal and scope .................................................................................................................................... 31 5.2 Life cycle inventory ............................................................................................................................. 38 5.3 Main assumptions ............................................................................................................................... 41 5.4 Impact assessment .............................................................................................................................. 42 III Results and discussion ................................................................................................................................. 44 6. Data inventory results .................................................................................................................................. 44 7. Midpoint sustainability results .................................................................................................................... 46 7.1 AoP: Ecosystem health ...................................................................................................................... 46 7.2 AoP: Human health ............................................................................................................................ 48 7.3 AoP: Natural resources ...................................................................................................................... 51 7.4 AoP: Human wellbeing ...................................................................................................................... 52 7.5 AoP: Prosperity ................................................................................................................................... 54 8. Endpoint sustainability results ................................................................................................................... 56 9. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 57 10. Learnings and recommendations .......................................................................................................... 58 IV Appendices .................................................................................................................................................... 64 1. Demographic and geographic parameters of the focus area ................................................................. 64 2. Composition of the BSF treatment plant’s outputs ............................................................................... 64 3. Normalisation of the results ....................................................................................................................... 65 4. Midpoint impact categories ........................................................................................................................ 66 5 | P a g e 4.1 Environmental impact categories ..................................................................................................... 66 4.2 Social impact categories ..................................................................................................................... 66 4.3 Economic impact categories ............................................................................................................