Framework for life cycle sustainability assessment of municipal solid waste management systems with an application to a case study in Thailand

Menikpura, S.N.M.; Gheewala, Shabbir H.; Bonnet, Sophie

doi:10.1177/0734242x12444896

Cited by 73 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…A large number of studies have been conducted on waste-related economic assessments, which often compare different technology options (Aye and Widjaya 2006;Menikpura et al 2012;Ngoc and Schnitzer 2009;Reich 2005). However, multinational comparative study focusing on a single waste management method practiced in different capacities, particularly for the composting method, is rare.…”

Section: Methods For Economic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Financial sustainability of modern composting: the economically optimal scale for municipal waste composting plant in developing Asia

Pandyaswargo

Premakumara

2014

Int J Recycl Org Waste Agricult

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There is a widespread interest in converting organic waste into compost fertilizer to extend the life of landfills, create economic and environmental benefits, and ultimately reduce the pressure on local governments in managing the ever-increasing complexity of municipal solid waste. However, composting is still seldom considered as a strategic element. There is also very little evidence available of its economic feasibility. This study, therefore, aims to analyze key factors that influence the economic feasibility of municipal composting plant and identify a range of plant capacity or scale where a composting project could have higher opportunity to be financially sustainable. A cost-benefit analysis (CBA) was carried out using the data gathered from five composting plants in Asia, including Surabaya, Bali and Bekasi in Indonesia, Beijing in China, and Matale in Sri Lanka. The results identified that the medium-scale and lower largescale composting plants have an optimal opportunity for being financially feasible as compared with the smaller and larger capacity plants. The study also identified that the economic viability of the composting plants depends on the number of factors, such as selection of suitable processing methods, technologies, scale, quality of product and marketing strategies. The advantages of the medium and lower large-scale composting plants are (1) waste input and product quality are easier to control than larger scale compost plants, and (2) there are extra income opportunities such as tipping fees and carbon credits that are limited in the case of small-scale composting plants. The scale of composting plant is one of the key factors to be considered at the initial stage of planning composting plants.

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Section: Methods For Economic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Financial sustainability of modern composting: the economically optimal scale for municipal waste composting plant in developing Asia

Pandyaswargo

Premakumara

2014

Int J Recycl Org Waste Agricult

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“…recycling and AD, is required for a sustainable MSW management (Liamsanguan and Gheewala, 2008;Bahor et al, 2009;Tabata et al, 2011;Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata, 2012). This approach, known as Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM), includes the source-separation of waste made by residents, an efficient collection and transportation network (similar to the rational network of towns used in this survey), the recovery of useful materials and energy, as well as the disposal of residual waste (Kathiravale and Yunus, 2008;Menikpura et al, 2012).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The implementation of the above hierarchy is aimed at preventing and reducing waste production, avoiding, eliminating and preventing the causes of environmental impact, preventing GHG emissions, saving energy, protecting resources, creating new jobs and developing green energy technology (Menikpura et al, 2012;Corsten et al, 2013;Cucchiella et al, 2014). …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Organic Waste Management Methods Through Energy Balance

Comparetti

Febo

Greco

et al. 2014

American Journal of Applied Sciences

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In Italy, the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) is nowadays landfilled or processed through aerobic composting. The Italian towns currently support a high cost for OFMSW disposal and cause a high environmental impact, because of long distances travelled from towns to a few available landfills and fewer treatment places, as well as the used waste management methods. An interesting option for OFMSW is Anaerobic Digestion (AD), producing biogas and "digestate". In this survey a theoretical biogas plant was placed near a town of Sicily Region (Italy), centralised with reference to the area considered for producing OFMSW. The distances travelled every year to transport OFMSW from the nine towns considered to the nearest composting plant and the biogas one were calculated using QGIS software. Therefore, the energy balance was computed for each of the four considered scenarios. Within the implementation of Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) method, AD resulted in an energy balance much higher than that of aerobic composting. In fact, differently from composting, AD can significantly contribute to energy recovery, while retaining the nutrients in the digestate produced and reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The use of a rational network of towns for OFMSW collection and transportation results relevant, in terms of increased energy balance, only in the case of composting. Therefore, if AD would be implemented as OFMSW management method, by means of biogas plants, each of them placed in an area including some towns, e.g. that considered in this survey, it could highly reduce the cost and the environmental impact of waste disposal.

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“…Of those that have been reported, notable examples include analyses of different management strategies for bottom ash in Macao (Sou et al, 2016), alternative wastewater treatment technologies (Kalbar et al, 2016), the reuse of mobile phones in China (Lu et al, 2014), disposal scenarios for PET bottles in Mauritius (Foolmaun and Ramjeawon, 2013), the management of used cooking oil (Vinyes et al, 2013), and municipal waste management in Thailand (Menikpura et al, 2012). But while each of these is consistent in applying standard LCA to their case studies, the coverage of economic and social sustainability issues varies widely.…”

Section: Conceptual Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fully integrated modelling for sustainability assessment of resource recovery from waste

Millward-Hopkins

Busch

Purnell

et al. 2018

Science of The Total Environment

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• We develop a multidimensional model for assessing resource recovery systems.• Social, environmental, technical and economic domains of value are fully integrated.• We propose a new typology for metrics better suited to integrated modelling.• We apply the model to a case linking electricity and concrete/cement production.• Interdependencies between domains and temporal dynamics can be modelled. G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C Ta b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o This paper presents an integrated modelling approach for value assessments, focusing on resource recovery from waste. The method tracks and forecasts a range of values across environmental, social, economic and technical domains by attaching these to material-flows, thus building upon and integrating unidimensional models such as material flow analysis (MFA) and lifecycle assessment (LCA). We argue that the usual classification of metrics into these separate domains is useful for interpreting the outputs of multidimensional assessments, but unnecessary for modelling. We thus suggest that multidimensional assessments can be better performed by integrating the calculation methods of unidimensional models rather than their outputs. To achieve this, we propose a new metric typology that forms the foundation of a multidimensional model. This enables dynamic simulations to be performed with material-flows (or values in any domain) driven by changes in value in other domains. We then apply the model in an illustrative case highlighting links between the UK coal-based electricity-production and concrete/cement industries, investigating potential impacts that may follow the increased use of low-carbon fuels (biomass and solid recovered fuels; SRF) in the former. We explore synergies and trade-offs in value across domains and regions, e.g. how changes in carbon emissions in one part of the system may affect mortality elsewhere. This highlights the advantages of recognising complex system dynamics and making high-level inferences of their effects, even when rigorous analysis is not possible. We also indicate how changes in social, environmental and economic 'values' can be understood as being driven by changes in the technical value of resources. Our work thus emphasises the advantages of building fully integrated models to inform conventional sustainability assessments, rather than applying hybrid approaches that integrate outputs from parallel models. The approach we present demonstrates that this is feasible and lays the foundations for such an integrated model. Crown

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Framework for life cycle sustainability assessment of municipal solid waste management systems with an application to a case study in Thailand

Cited by 73 publications

References 19 publications

Financial sustainability of modern composting: the economically optimal scale for municipal waste composting plant in developing Asia

Financial sustainability of modern composting: the economically optimal scale for municipal waste composting plant in developing Asia

Assessment of Organic Waste Management Methods Through Energy Balance

Fully integrated modelling for sustainability assessment of resource recovery from waste

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