Life Cycle Assessment News Letter

No-11 Eleventh Issue July,2012

5. Disposal landfill). (such as

In this issue:
Waste Management & LCA : Study Material

Waste Management & LCA

Environmental protection is the buzz word today. It ranks very high in the public agenda of governments all over the world. Renewable energy and waste management sectors are getting a lot of attention from researchers and planners. But in this article we will focus on waste management sector. Waste is no more a garbage. It is now being considered as a resource. And recovery of resource is one of the prime objectives of present day Waste Management systems. It is worth noting here that there is no single technology that is capable of taking care of various wastes like plastics, glass, metals, bio-waste etc. Wastes contribute a lot in overall environmental burden and take up a lot of space as land fill sites. Also the nature of wastes is getting more complex day by day. It has, therefore, become imperative to have sound waste management strategies and policies for optimised environmental protection.

LCA is increasingly utilised for solid waste management systems especially in the decision-making process and in strategy-planning. LCA has been utilised for sustainable MSW management since 1995. LCA is an ideal tool for application in MSW management because geographic locations, characteristics of waste, energy sources, availability of some disposal options and size of markets for products derived from waste management differ widely. LCA can help reduce local pressures and waste management costs, while considering the broader effects and trade-offs felt elsewhere across society.
SimaPro India has started various online courses on Waste Management, Waste to Energy & Recycling with SimaPro. For more details on these courses log on to

It is expected that the above hierarchy would deal with wastes in a most resourceful way. The Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) concept and quantitative tools such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can provide an informed and science-based support to a more environmentally sustainable decisionmaking in waste management. LCA quantifies all relevant emissions, resources consumed/depleted, and the related environmental and health impacts associated with any goods or services. Therefore, within the concept of LCT, LCA is a vital and powerful tool to effectively and efficiently help make consumption and production globally more sustainable. When LCA is applied to waste management services, typically the system boundary starts where the active life of the product ends. Therefore, LCA focuses on comparison of different waste management options, without covering the entire life cycle of the products which have become waste. For example, when evaluating different options for bio-waste management, usually the production stages of the food that has become bio-waste, are not considered. Therefore, LCA applied to waste management service differs from product LCA which accounts for the
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Sunil Kumar, Head, SIPL.

To inculcate the culture of environment management and sustainability among future scientists and managers PR and SIPL are now providing free faculty licenses, to all recognized educational institutes in India. Under this license each institute will get SimaPro along with ecoinvent data for its students and staff. To get this free license of SimaPro please contact at info@simaproindia.com or visit www.pre.nl .

EU Waste Framework Directive establishes a

straightforward five-step waste hierarchy as legally binding priority order for waste management. The hierarchy is 1. 2. 3. 4. Waste prevention Re-use Recycling Other recovery and

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Life Cycle Assessment News Letter

No-11 Eleventh Issue
entire life cycle of a product, in which waste management may play only a minor role. In this article focus is on Recycling, Other recovery and Disposal or Landfill. It is endeavoured to explain these in as simple as possible terms with the help of LCA. We will start with waste flow chart as shown in the figure given below. wastes. Once sorting has been done selected waste is sent to respective waste treatment facilities which may be located elsewhere. It is to be noted here that transportation used in this phase is different from the previous phase in terms of driving mode and loading. Trucks are generally on full load and there is no stoppage in between.

July,2012
Environmental performance of recycling requires thorough understanding of the recovered materials, use of extra energy, transportation, use of incineration/landfill for remaining material and reprocessing. Bio-waste or organic waste account for a large chunk of total waste generated. Bio-wastes have very high moisture content and odour issues and they degrade very fast. Anaerobic digestion with or without energy recovery, Pyrolysis, Composting of digestate etc are some of the treatments employed for bio-waste. Environmental performance of bio-waste treatments depend on % of moisture, energy recovery, use of compost as fertilizers and leachate treatment. Waste incineration is the oxidation of the combustible material contained in the waste. Waste is highly heterogeneous material, consisting of organic substances (of fossil or biogenic origin), minerals, metals, and water. The organic substances in the waste burn once they reach the ignition temperature and come into contact with oxygen. The waste incinerator process chain includes waste collection, delivery, storage, pre-treatment, incineration/ combustion/ energy recovery, flue gas cleaning, solid residue management, and waste
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Waste management starts with collection of waste distributed over a predefined area. Different types of wastes are collected and brought to a typical waste storage. Waste collection stage ends at the first unloading site. The environmental performance of this phase depends on the type of vehicle used, the condition of the road, type of fuel and efficiency of the vehicle. Waste is collected from garbage-bins stationed at residential colonies. Most of the time the vehicle runs on 'stopand go' driving mode and rarely runs on full load. Next phase of waste management starts with sorting / shredding of

But environmental performance of this phase is again dependent on the type of vehicle used, the condition of the road, type of fuel and efficiency of the vehicle. One of the most important waste treatment options is 'Recycling'. Recycling is complex. The complexity starts with the recovered material.
Which primary material is recovered? How much primary material is recovered? Which production process is affected? Can plastics recovered from PET bottles recycling be used for bottle making? Is the recovered plastic being used for same application? Does steel recovered from building debris posses same strength?

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Life Cycle Assessment News Letter

No-11 Eleventh Issue
water treatment. The main stages of the incineration process itself are (i) drying and degassing, (ii) Pyrolysis and gasification, and (iii) full oxidation. These main stages generally overlap, meaning that spatial and temporal separation of these stages during incineration is only possible to a limited extent. The most commonly applied techniques for waste incineration are stoker or grate firing, rotary kilns and stationary or circulating fluidized bed combustion (FBC). When waste is fully oxidized, combustion gases are formed that carry the majority of the waste energy as heat. This heat may be used for steam and / or electricity generation. Emitted flue gases usually contain as their major constituents water vapor, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and among others incomplete combustion products (CO, PCDD/F, PAH, PCB, etc.), acid gases (HCL, HF, SO2), nitrous oxides (NO, NO2), particulate matter (SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, heavy metals) in the form of fly ash and volatile (heavy) metals (Cd, Hg). Chemical composition of flue gas varies and depends on the composition of input waste and operating conditions. If an incinerator has energy recovery and use, the exported energy (e.g. electric power, heat, steam) from the plant can lead to substitution of fossil fuels. Compared to the reduction of methane emissions from landfills, waste incineration especially when operated as a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant significantly reduces GHG emissions. Landfill means anaerobic degradation of waste. Landfill in an LCA perspective is challenging because of several specific issues. Emissions and energy recovery from a landfill may occur over a long period of time after waste delivery has been terminated. Gas extraction from a landfill with municipal waste may take place for 3040 years after the landfilling has ceased, while leachate emissions from a landfill may potentially continue for several centuries. Environmental performance of a landfill site is highly variable and depends on the specific performance of the gas/leachate collection and treatment systems, emission levels, energy production efficiency, effectiveness of the barrier systems, etc. Thus we find that 'Recycling', 'Bio-waste treatment', 'Incineration with or without energy recovery' and 'Landfill' are the major processes one has to model in waste Management through LCA. The above processes are complex and require meticulous preparation and understanding of the subject. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sunil Kumar, Head, SimaPro India

July,2012

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