The ecological relevance of transport in waste disposal systems in Western Europe

Salhofer, Stefan; Schneider, Felicitas; Obersteiner, Gudrun

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2007.02.025

Cited by 82 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The most impacting processes are collection and transport of mixed waste, plastics and paper. As for plastics, results are consistent with what observed in the transport of light materials, such as expanded polystyrene (Salhofer et al 2007). The estimated impact of paper is higher than observed in other studies (Muñoz et al 2004;Salhofer et al 2007), as the environmental impact of transport is only partly compensated by recycling.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Although the collection step was recognised to be the most impacting one, they did not find significant differences between alternative scenarios with a different number and different types of treatment plants. In a recent paper, Salhofer et al (2007) investigated the environmental relevance of transport in disposal systems of specific waste streams in Austria by comparing recycling with longer transport distances with disposal without recycling. Four material streams were considered: refrigerators, waste paper, polyethylene films and expanded polystyrene.…”

Section: Background Aim and Scopementioning

confidence: 99%

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Accounting for transportation impacts in the environmental assessment of waste management plans

Pisoni

Raccanelli

Dotelli

et al. 2009

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Background, aim, and scope\ud Many recent studies on waste management have described in detail the potential impacts of recycling and final treatment of municipal waste. In public debates the attention has also been focused on the choice of final disposal technologies (e.g., landfilling vs. incineration). However, a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of waste collection and transport was still lacking. In the present study we use LCA to evaluate the potential impact of the provincial waste management plan of Varese (northern Italy). A particular attention is devoted to the estimation of environmental impacts generated during waste transport.\ud \ud Materials and methods\ud A detailed Life Cycle Inventory was built for the transportation phase, based on primary data collected by interviewing the agencies involved in waste collection. To model the recycling and final disposal phase we relied on the BUWAL 250 database. Impacts were evaluated with the Eco-Indicator 99 method in its egalitarian formulation.\ud \ud Results\ud The results of our analysis reveal that the major potential impacts of the plan are associated with waste collection and transport. These impacts are partially compensated by reduced resource consumption through recycling and energy recovery through incineration. Discussion The outputs of the LCIA were compared with those obtained by using other ecoindicators (Eco-Indicator 99 hierarchist and individualist, CML2, EPS2000). Although not comparable on a quantitative basis, they are qualitatively consistent.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud Neglecting the effects of collection and transport might result in a severe underestimation of the environmental impacts of a waste management system, especially as refers to depletion of fossil fuels, emission of respiratory inorganics and climate change. To reduce the environmental impact of waste management systems an accurate optimisation of waste transport is required.\ud Recommendations and perspectives Effective waste management planning requires the explicit inclusion of waste collection and transport when comparing alternative management policies.\ud ISI CON REFEREE\ud P.248-25

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Background Aim and Scopementioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting for transportation impacts in the environmental assessment of waste management plans

Pisoni

Raccanelli

Dotelli

et al. 2009

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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“…In most of these studies, recycling is more environmentally profitable than land filling or collecting metals from municipal waste incineration plants' bottom ash. This result is also supported by other studies [12][13][14]. In addition, Dahlén, et al's (2007) [15] study demonstrated that the result of extended property collection is that more metal and other recyclables were source-separated and recycled.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Comparison of Collection Schemes of Municipal Solid Waste Metallic Fraction: The Impacts on Global Warming Potential for the Case of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland

2012

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Abstract:In this research article the sustainability of different practices to collect the metal fraction of household waste in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland is examined. The study is carried out by calculating and comparing the greenhouse gas reduction potential of optional practices for collecting the metal fraction of household waste in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland. In order to locate the greenhouse gas reduction potential of the separate collection of the metallic fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW) collected from residential sources, a comparative carbon footprint analysis using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on six different waste management scenarios is carried out. The modeled system consisted of a waste collection system, transportation, and different waste management alternatives, including on-site separation, separation at the waste management facility as well as metallurgical recovery of separated scrap. The results show that, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, separate collection and recycling of the metallic fraction of solid MSW at residential properties is the preferable option compared to a scenario with no source sorting and incineration of everything. According to this research scenario where the metal fraction of solid household waste was not source-separated or collected separately have clearly higher greenhouse gas emissions compared to all the other scenarios with separate collection for metals. In addition, metal recycling by regional collection points has considerably lower greenhouse gas emission potential than metal recycling by collection directly from residential properties.

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“…Because of the dynamic and stochastic characteristics of the studied networks, waste management must be based on the global load exerted on the system rather than on a 2 linear classification of the available options. Furthermore, the load is directly influenced by the impacts associated with transport (Bovea et al, 2007, Salhofer et al, 2007, Eisted et al, 2009, such as the means of transport chosen, the distance traveled and the road type. This article presents the Dynamic Waste Management approach (DWM), which combines the concepts of distribution in networks and conservation of energy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic waste management (DWM): Towards an evolutionary decision-making approach

et al. 2013

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Due to the social, economical and environmental impacts associated with waste management, it is necessary to move towards decision-making approaches which integrate each one of these aspects. Currently, the recommended approaches are rather static and linear in their application; furthermore, they do not allow an optimal use of the available materials. Consequently, the choice for a waste management process is often based on fixed parameters, while the systems are in constant evolution. But actually, the validity of the prioritization of a waste treatment process is directly related to the impacts associated with the length of paths, means of transport and characteristics of the road chosen. The available tools however neglect this dynamic aspect, which is critical to reduce the load of the studied system. In order to guarantee a sustainable and dynamic waste management, DWM suggests an evolutionary new approach which maintains a constant flow towards the most favourable waste treatment processes (facilities) within a system. To do so, the DWM is based on the law of conservation of energy, which allows balancing a network while considering the constraints associated with transport. To demonstrate the scope of the DWM, the following article outlines the approach and then presents an example of its application.

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The ecological relevance of transport in waste disposal systems in Western Europe

Cited by 82 publications

References 5 publications

Accounting for transportation impacts in the environmental assessment of waste management plans

Accounting for transportation impacts in the environmental assessment of waste management plans

Comparison of Collection Schemes of Municipal Solid Waste Metallic Fraction: The Impacts on Global Warming Potential for the Case of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland

Dynamic waste management (DWM): Towards an evolutionary decision-making approach

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