Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment for Waste Management

Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment

for Waste Management ©Photodisc

Waste Management in the EU

CONTENT Around 3 billion tonnes of waste are generated in the EU each year - over 6 tonnes for every European citizen. This has a huge impact on Waste Management in the EU the environment, causing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Good waste management can significantly Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment reduce these impacts, and Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment can help policy makers choose the best environmental options. Supporting Waste Management Decisions - Examples A key aim of EU policies on resources and waste is to move to a more Should cars be made of lighter or more recyclable materials? resource-efficient and sustainable future. EU policies and legislation Should we keep on using old washing machines? on waste highlight the need for good waste management. The Waste Is recycling plastic bottles better than incineration with energy Framework Directive establishes the waste hierarchy. This sets an order of priority, starting with the preferred option of waste prevention, followed recovery? by preparing waste for re-use, recycling and energy recovery, with disposal Should home composting be encouraged? (such as landfill) as the last resort. Case Study: Copenhagen Following the waste hierarchy will generally lead to the most resource- efficient and environmentally sound choice. However, in some cases Further Information refining decisions within the hierarchy or departing from it can lead to better environmental outcomes. The “best” choice is often influenced by specific local conditions and care needs to be taken not to simply shift environmental problems from one area to another. Decision-makers need to base their choices on firm factual evidence. Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment provide a scientifically sound approach to ensure that the best outcome for the environment can be identified and put in place.

Prevention Preparing for re-use

Recycling

Other Recovery

Disposal : http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/photo/photo_thematic_en.cfm Source The fundamental aim of Life Cycle Thinking is to reduce overall Life Cycle Thinking and environmental impacts. This can involve trade-offs between impacts at different stages of the life cycle. However, care needs Assessment to be taken to avoid shifting problems from one stage to another. Reducing the environmental impact of a product at the production Over their life-time, products (goods and services) can contribute stage may lead to a greater environmental impact further down to various environmental impacts. Life Cycle Thinking considers the line. An apparent benefit of a waste management option can the range of impacts throughout the life of a product. Life Cycle therefore be cancelled out if not thoroughly evaluated. Assessment quantifies this by assessing the emissions, resources consumed and pressures on health and the environment that The European Commission has developed guidelines for Life can be attributed to a product. It takes the entire life cycle into Cycle Assessment which are fully compatible with international account – from the extraction of natural resources through to standards. These aims to ensure quality and consistency material processing, manufacturing, distribution and use; and based on scientific evidence when carrying out assessments. finally the re-use, recycling, energy recovery and the disposal of Further information as well as reference material is available at: remaining waste. http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/

Life Cycle Thinking

Resource Use Health & Environment Raw Impact Materials

Transport Energy Climate Change

Recovery

Recycling Production

Materials Eutrophication Use

Land Use Toxic Pressure Transport Transport Storage Retail ©Photodisc

Supporting Waste a specific situation. Typical questions that can arise in local or regional settings include: Management Decisions - • Is it better to recycle waste or to recover energy from it? Examples What are the trade-offs for particular waste streams? • Is it better to replace appliances with new, more energy European, national and local public authorities and businesses efficient models or keep using the old ones and avoid are increasingly being encouraged to make use of Life Cycle generating waste? Thinking and Life Cycle Assessment as support tools for decision- making. • Are the greenhouse gas emissions created when collecting waste justified by the expected benefits? Waste management is an area where local conditions often influence the choice of policy options. Life Cycle Thinking and The next pages provide a handful of practical examples of how Life Cycle Assessment can be used to weigh up the possible Life Cycle Thinking has been applied to answer these kinds of environmental benefits and drawbacks linked to policy options in questions. Should cars be made of lighter or new machine requires energy and creates Recycling therefore normally results more recyclable materials? emissions equivalent to 20 kg CO2 over in lower energy consumption than the same period. Replacing the machine incinerating bottles and producing new Car manufacturing requires a wide variety therefore avoids the equivalent of about ones from raw material. This example of materials. Steel has traditionally been 10 kg CO . assumes, however, that the plastic is not used, but is progressively being replaced 2 heavily soiled and is not degraded in the by plastics and composite materials This illustrates that it can be preferable recycling process. which are typically lighter. Steel makes a to buy a new more efficient appliance car heavier, which in turn increases the rather than keeping an old one to avoid In this particular example, Life Cycle amount of fuel needed to drive the car. generating waste. However, to determine Assessment confirms that recycling is However, steel parts are easily recycled at solutions for specific appliances, a Life better than energy recovery, as described the end of the vehicle’s life, while plastics Cycle Assessment needs to be made. in the waste hierarchy. However, a and composites often are not. Policy approaches in favour of one option Life Cycle Assessment carried out over another can then be argued on the under different conditions (such as in For a specific case, an environmental basis of verifiable evidence. another region) could result in different impact analysis showed that only if a ______conclusions. car is driven more than 132,000 km is ______there a net benefit gained by using the “Évaluation des bénéfices environnementaux, lighter but less recyclable materials. In this économiques et sociaux de différents ELCD Database : http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ example there is a trade-off between two scénarios de réutilisation des déchets par For amorphous PET (Bio-IS « Bilan environmental benefits. One is the lower les entreprises d’économie sociale”. RDC environnemental sur les filières de recyclage fuel consumption due to the use of lighter Environment study for the Walloon Waste : l’état des connaissances ACV ». For the materials and the other is the energy Agency, 2008 Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise savings due to recycling. Benefits will also de l’Energie - ADEME (2001)) depend on many other variables, such as Is recycling plastic bottles better than replaced parts and the car type. incineration with energy recovery? 100 This example illustrates that it is A frequent issue in waste management Energy recovery important to consider a number of is whether to recycle or incinerate used 60 Recycling process aspects of a product, including its weight Avoided Production products. Life Cycle Assessment helps 20 and recyclability. Reducing weight is address this issue. In this example, plastic typically seen as a way of limiting the bottles are considered, and for simplicity MJ/kg -20 environmental impact of products. only the energy aspects are taken into However, this needs to be balanced account. -60 against the recyclability of the product The production of plastic bottles from -100 and its components. The example further Recycling Incineration suggests that if plastic components were raw materials requires about 80 MJ/kg more easily recyclable, benefits for the (energy per kilogramme). Incineration Should home composting be environment could be greater. can generate about 3 MJ/kg of electricity and about 10 MJ of process steam from encouraged? ______the recovered energy. However, despite A comprehensive study that included Duflou JR, et al. Environmental impact this small energy gain, new bottles would both Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and an analysis of composite use in car have to be produced, requiring high evaluation of costs and benefits to society manufacturing. CIRP Annals - Manufacturing amounts of energy. In contrast, recycling was conducted in order to assess the Technology (2009) and selective collection consumes 9 potential benefits of home composting. MJ/kg while also avoiding the much higher energy consumption used in The study concluded that home Should we keep on using old washing the production of new plastic from raw composting is not always environmentally machines? materials. preferable to separate collection, followed by industrial composting. A reason for this, Keeping and using a 3-year-old washing machine that is efficient (such as category A) is probably an environmentally sound choice. However, when you have a 7-year- old washing machine with low energy efficiency (e.g. category C) should you continue to use it for another 5 years, avoiding waste, or should you recycle it and buy a new, more efficient machine (e.g. category A)? A study showed that replacing the machine instead of continuing to use it

leads to lower energy consumption and ©Photodisc emission reductions equivalent to around

30 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 5 year period. Producing and recycling a A generalA brochure onLife Cycle Thinkingand Assessment isavailable at the above websites. http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ International the including Assessment, Cycle Life robustReference Life a Cycle Data conductSystem (ILCD) to and guidelines howfor waste management, and are available Thinking Cycle at: Life on informationFurther http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste Furtherinformation about EUwaste policy and legislation can befound onthe DGEnvironment website: FurtherInformation it but process decision-making a Cycle replace Life cannot Assessment A perspective. into disadvantages and environmental advantages potential puts gives which It information strategies. quantitative management waste on decisions making when face to have they trade-offs and benefits to theunderstand and management waste of identifythe best environmental area options. can It help supportpolicy makers the to used in be decision-making can Assessment and Thinking Cycle Life WalloonWaste Agency, 2004 domicile”.RDC Environment study for the Evaluationdes politiques de compostage à matièrede déchets ménagers et assimilés, “Évaluationdes politiques de prévention en ______socialand environmental conclusions. upseemingly contradictory economic, Assessmentcan help policy makers weigh Asthis example illustrates, Life Cycle emissionsand harmful compounds. ofoxygen leads to the generation of thematerial to get enough air, aslack compostregularly inorder to enable bestpractice. Thisinvolves turning the withinformation and guidance about citizensto practice home composting tocomplement policies that encourage awareness.may It therefore benecessary cheaperand promotes environmental However,home composting ismuch ammonia). (suchasmethane, nitrous oxide and generatesvarietya ofharmful emissions compostingprocess appropriately. This homecomposters donot manage their highlightedinthe study, isthat 20-65% of acidification,measured intonnes of asemissions ofgreenhouse gases and evaluationtook into account impacts such economicperspective. Theenvironmental one,both from anenvironmental and couldbereplaced bymore a efficient existingcollection and treatment strategy Thepurpose was to see whether the complementaneconomic evaluation. CycleAssessment was carried out to Tohelp with decision-making, Lifea inparticular for metals and plastics. managingdrinks packaging waste, neededto look into new options for wastecollection, the city ofCopenhagen Followingnew statutory requirements on CaseStudy: Copenhagen equivalentand incineration: typesofhousehold waste, followed by whichinvolved collection with other andcompared to the existing strategy, Fouralternative scenarios were studied • Collection • Street • Centralised • Separate bottlebanks centres tothe existing glass bottle banks

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