A dissertation submitted to the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy of Central European University in part fulfilment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Environmental assessment and policy options for solid waste systems and technologies in Budapest with EASEWASTE Tamás DIENES October 2012 Budapest CEU eTD Collection Notes on copyright and the ownership of intellectual property rights: (1) Copyright in text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European University Library. Details may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the Author. (2) The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described in this thesis is vested in the Central European University, subject to any prior agreement to the contrary, and may not be made available for use by third parties without the written permission of the University, which will prescribe the terms and conditions of any such agreement. (3) For bibliographic and reference purposes this thesis should be referred to as: Dienes, T. 2012. Environmental assessment and policy options for solid waste systems and technologies in Budapest with EASEWASTE. Dissertation, Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University, Budapest. Further information on the conditions under which disclosures and exploitation may take place is available from the Head of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University. Photo credits to the author if not otherwise stated. CEU eTD Collection ii Author’s declaration No portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. Tamas DIENES CEU eTD Collection iii CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION submitted by: Tamas DIENES for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and entitled: Environmental assessment and policy options for solid waste systems and technologies in Budapest with EASEWASTE. Month and Year of submission: October, 2012. The waste management system in Hungary has been fundamentally changed in the last two years. A new Waste Law which in full compliance with the EU Waste Framework Directive will come into force in 2013. A state-owned National Waste Management Agency Nonprofit Ltd. was established to control the flows of specific waste types and to contribute to building a stricter, controllable and more transparent waste management system. Parallel to these national changes, FKF Zrt., the waste management company of Budapest also has reviewed its activity and examined possibilities for more efficient and environmentally friendly waste management. In this thesis the solid waste management of Budapest has been evaluated focusing on selective waste collection, which must be increased in coming years according to new legislation. The key stakeholders of FKF Zrt. are specifically interested in the impact of waste management on the environment. This thesis therefore provides numerical answers to the research question of what the nature and capacity for recycling in Budapest is, and what impacts recycling can have on environmental pollution and climate change. This issue had been analyzed with life cycle assessment, which in the new legislation is regarded as a very important tool for decision- making. This thesis applies the EASEWASTE model for life cycle assessment, which hasf authjor never been applied before in Hungary. By request of the author, laboratory samples of three waste generation types (multi family, single family and business units) in Budapest were recorded and classified into 48 categories in a process that represents the most detailed waste composition study to date in Budapest and very likely in Hungary. In most cases life cycle assessment is based on yearly data. In this thesis, however, the analysis was prepared based on the data for each month from 2008-2011 illustrating the trend in selective waste collection and its related changes in environmental impacts. The interpretation of the results are discussed at the end of the dissertation, and in the conclusion important recommendations have been outlined which suggest pathways for development of the present system to becoming a more efficient and controllable waste management network with lower environmental impacts. CEU eTD Collection Keywords: Life cycle assessment, global warming potential, recycling, EASEWASTE, municipal solid waste, environmental impacts, Budapest, FKF Zrt., iv To Flóra CEU eTD Collection v Acknowledgements I would not have made it this far without the love, encouragement and support of several people during the preparation of this thesis. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Zoltán Illés, who has served as my supervisor from the beginning of my graduate studies. First he served as my Master thesis supervisor and then continued to direct my research during my PhD studies. I would like to thank him for his immense intelligence and knowledge which has always inspired and guided me at every milestone of this emotional, intellectual and spiritual journey from the very beginning until the last moment. I would like to extend my appreciation to Prof. Tamara Steger from Central European University who provided help and consultation at any time during my PhD writing period and directed the essence of the thesis is a fruitful path. Furthermore, I would like to thank Prof. Alan Watt from Central European University for always being helpful and advising on issues related to the PhD process. My sincere gratitude goes to Prof. Tibor Illés, particularly for the fruitful collaboration within the last three years during the cooperation with FKF Zrt. and for giving me the larger perspective of academic thinking while stealing evening hours from his rest (and his family) on a weekly basis in the last period of the thesis writing. My fellow students especially Plamen Peev and in addition Keti Medarova, Farhad Mukhtarov, Alexandra Novikova, Csaba Pusztai, Veronika Czakó, Dora Kulauzov and Maia Gachechiladze found their best way to give me ideas in the difficult moments. In addition, I would like to thank for the Professors at the Danish Technical University, especially Thomas H. Christensen, and Anders Damgaard, my external committee member as well as Michael Hauschild for teaching me the EASEWASTE model and the good talks that fed me with artistic lightness and creative thoughts. The people I met at the Fővárosi Közterület-fenntartó Zrt. in Budapest where I was able to obtain the necessary data and information for my research, especially Attila Olgyay- Szabó, Gábor Király, Mihály Siklóssy and Zsuzsanna Borsi who provided me with useful information and valuable data. I am thankful to all people at the Országos Hulladékgazdálkodási Ügynökség Nonprofit Kft. (National Waste Management Agency Nonprofit Ltd.), especially Oszkár Vámosi, CEU eTD Collection who provided much useful information to me, along with original thoughts and documents. Last but not least, I am faithful to my parents, my sister, my daughter, my relatives, Kati, friends in Hungary: Kerti and Beni and friends in abroad: Ernst and Torill, for the immense patience, support and encouragement throughout these years. vi Table of Contents ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ IV DEDICATION .............................................................................................................................................. V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................................. VI LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................................... IX LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................................................ XI LIST OF PICTURES .................................................................................................................................... XIV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................................... XV 1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 2 Background of the research .................................................................. 5 2.1 ORIGINALITY OF THE RESEARCH – THE EASEWASTE MODEL ......................................................... 6 Scenarios ..............................................................................................................................................14 Potential users .....................................................................................................................................19 3 Research question, assumptions, objectives and outcomes.............. 21 3.1 KEY RESEARCH QUESTION ...............................................................................................................21 3.2 RESEARCH ASSUMPTIONS