Project description:Environmental assessment of municipal solid waste (MSW) management scenarios would help to select eco-friendly scenarios. In this study, the inventory data in support of life cycle assessment of different MSW are presented. The scenarios were defined as: anaerobic digestion (AD, Sc-0), landfilling combined with composting (Sc-1), incineration (Sc-2), incineration combined with composting (Sc-3), and AD combined with incineration (Sc-4). The current article contains flowcharts of the different scenarios. Additionally, six supplementary files including inventory data on the different scenarios, data on the different damage assessment categories, normalization, and single scores are presented (Supplementary files 1-6). The analysis of the different scenarios revealed that the most eco-friendly scenario to be implemented in the future would be the combination of AD and incineration (Sc-4).
Project description:Confronted with a series of problems caused by surging generation of municipal solid waste (MSW), the Chinese central and local governments have promulgated and implemented policies to deal with them, including promotions of the classification of MSW. However, to date, practical knowledge and understanding about benefits for garbage classification from its environmental performance perspective is still limited. The present study is purposed to comprehensively investigate the environmental effects of garbage classification on municipal solid waste management (MSWM) systems based on three proposed garbage classification scenarios in China, via a comparative life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). Taking advantage of Impact Assessment of Chemical Toxics (IMPACT) 2002+ method, this comparative LCIA study can quantitatively evaluate midpoint, endpoint, and single scored life cycle impacts for the studied MSWM systems. A Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis is carried out to test the effectiveness and reliabilities of the LCIA results. The LCIA and uncertainty analysis results show that MSWM systems based on various garbage classification scenarios have significant variations in the studied midpoint, endpoint, and single scored environmental impacts. Different garbage classification scenarios have their individual environmental-friendly superiority for specific impact categories. Overall, results of this study demonstrate that MSW treatment systems integrated with garbage classification are more environmentally friendly by comparison with non-classification; and that the more elaborate the level of MSW classification, the smaller its impacts on the environment.
Project description:The production of clean and efficient energy from municipal solid waste (MSW) is extremely urgent matter due to an increasing energy demand and environmental concerns. In this study, a high steam parameter (520 °C, 7.9 MPa) circulating fluidized bed (CFB) MSW incineration system, equipped with a mechanical, biological treatment and external heat exchanger systems, was introduced and a comparative study with a typical mechanical grate (450 °C, 5.3 MPa) incineration system and conventional CFB (485 °C, 5.3 MPa) incineration system was carried out from a life-cycle, environmental and exergetic perspective which could assess different energy and material outputs based on real operating data. Moreover, the potential system optimization of this advanced CFB system was proposed. The results showed that the advanced CFB system was more environmentally friendly and resource-efficient than conventional MSW incineration systems. The recovery of material should be given priority over energy recovery. According to the assessment of the environment, and energy and material recovery, a process improvement with an incinerated refuse-derived fuel and a semi-compost produced by MBT as a soil conditioner was highly recommended.
Project description:Life cycle assessment and machine learning were combined to find the best option for Tehran's waste management for future pandemics. The ReCipe results showed the waste's destructive effects after COVID-19 were greater than before due to waste composition changes. Plastic waste has changed from 7.5 to 11%. Environmental burdens of scenarios were Sc-1 (increase composting to 50%) > Sc-3 > Sc-4 > Sc-b2 > Sc-5 > Sc-2 (increase recycling from 9 to 20%). The artificial neural network and gradient-boosted regression tree could predict environmental impacts with high R2. Based on the results, the environmental burdens of solid waste after COVID-19 should be investigated. Graphical abstract Image 1
Project description:The leachate collection system (LCS) and leak detection system (LDS) flow rate data from 240 cells (or a combination of cells) at 54 municipal solid-waste landfills (located in seven US states) with double-liner systems were analyzed to assess the performance of the primary liner system. The average LCS leachate collection rates for the study sites ranged from 380 L ha-1 day-1 (40.7 gal. acre-1 day-1) to 22,400 L ha-1 day-1 (2,390 gal. acre-1 day-1) on a sitewide basis, and the average LDS leachate collection rates ranged from 1.8 L ha-1 day-1 (0.2 gal. acre-1 day-1) to 577 L ha-1 day-1 (61.7 gal. acre-1 day-1) on a sitewide basis. Assuming all leachate generated is collected either by the LCS or LDS, the data suggest that the primary liner systems' aggregated efficiency is over 98%. The collection efficiency at sites that used a composite liner (geomembrane underlain by a geosynthetic clay liner or a compacted clay liner) system was not statistically different from the sites that used only a geomembrane as the primary liner (geomembrane underlain by a permeable layer) (median of 99% for both types). Leakage rates were compared with those estimated from the equations used by the hydrologic evaluation of landfill performance (HELP) model. The comparison suggests that the equations used by the HELP model to estimate leakage through the liner overestimate the leakage rate through geomembrane primary liners but underestimate the leakage rate through composite primary liners based on the HELP-model-default defect size and suggested defect frequency. It is also possible that groundwater intrusion could contribute to a portion of the leachate collected from the LDS because leachate quality data collected from a few sites indicated the LCS leachate had a higher concentration of most constituents than the leachate collected from LDS.
Project description:Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management has been a long-standing problem for many cities in developing countries. Urbanization, population growth, and excessive demand for resources caused significant waste related environmental and socio-economic problems in cities. Integration of policy decisions with actionable targets and management of economic and environmental extremes were common challenges to achieving sustainable waste management strategy. Circular economy is a concept that has been evolved with sustainable resource management perspective adopted in this study to support scientific decision-making process for urban planners and policymakers. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a framework to assess the environmental impacts of waste life cycle ranging from waste generation, transportation, treatment, and end disposal. This study used the LCA framework to evaluate the impact of MSW management of a selected local authority in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to identify the environmental impact of four (04) proposed scenarios in comparison with the Business-As-Usual (BAU) scenario. Environmental impacts were calculated using global warming potential in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and short-lived climate pollutants. The results revealed that management of MSW within the local authority boundary by integrating recycling, incineration, and sanitary landfill (3:8:1 ratio) offered the highest positive impacts (- 121.84 kg of CO2 eq./ton) while BAU scenario caused the highest negative impacts (250.97 kg of CO2 eq./ton) in comparison with selected scenarios. Moreover, incineration, sanitary landfill, recycling, and anaerobic digestion contributed to emission savings and energy generation. LCA framework was used to identify the composition of MSW for suitable technologies as well as to evaluate the efficiency of existing management mechanisms within a local authority. Evaluation was used to understand the holistic picture of multiple management options to support policymakers in the decision-making process. This framework can be used as a benchmarking tool and bridging concept between the waste management policy and local action plans, which is an important step towards achieving a circular economy for developing countries.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43615-022-00200-x.
Project description:In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the creation of healthy cities has become an important measure to deal with global public diseases and public health emergencies, and has had a profound impact on the management of municipal solid waste (MSW). This study exploits the Healthy Cities pilot (HCP) program established in 2016 as a natural experiment, and evaluates its impact on MSW management using the difference-in-difference (DID) method. The estimates show that the collection amount and harmless treatment capacity of MSW were increased by 15.66 and 10.75%, respectively, after the cities were established as pilot healthy cities. However, the harmless treatment rate was decreased by 3.544. This conclusion remains valid in a series of robustness tests, including parallel trend test, placebo test, propensity score matching (PSM)-DID, eliminating the interference of other policies, and eliminating the non-randomness of the policy. Mechanism analysis shows that the HCP program increased the collection amount and harmless treatment capacity of MSW by increasing the expenditure on MSW treatment. However, after a city was established as a pilot healthy city, the unsustainable high expenditure of local government on municipal sanitation led to the decrease in the harmless treatment rate of MSW. Moreover, heterogeneity analysis shows that the HCP program had a stronger impact on MSW management in cities with higher administrative levels, more obvious location advantages, and a larger size. Therefore, it is advisable to use the creation of healthy cities as an important tool to gradually improve MSW management, so as to realize the coordinated development of city construction and human health.
Project description:The world due to increased urbanization and globalization is facing major environmental challenges. Anthropogenic emissions of Greenhouse gases (GHG) like carbon dioxide and methane are on the rise and unsustainable which needs to be regulated. Open dumping of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) contributes to generation of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. This is because large fractions of the waste open dumped are organic in nature which undergoes anaerobic decomposition leading to generation of GHGs. In particular, methane has a high potential for energy generation and if utilized could be highly beneficial. The present study assesses the generation of landfill gases, primarily methane generation potential from MSW generated in Kanpur city using LandGEM 3.02 version model developed by USEPA for the period 2015-2030. It was observed from the study that the cumulative LFGs generation, methane emission and energy recovery potential estimated as 233.44 × 106 m3, 116 × 106 m3 and 858.14 × 106 MJ respectively. Uncertainty analysis carried out showed that variation in methane emissions maybe attributed to input parameters of k and Lo of the LandGEM model. The study shows that there exists high potential to control the greenhouse gas emissions by utilizing the methane generated for energy production.
Project description:This article contains (i) a set of spreadsheets with data compiled from municipal sanitation or solid waste plans, and (ii) data of the individual and aggregate performance indicators. These indicators have been published in the Journal of Cleaner Production in the article entitled "A municipal solid waste indicator for environmental impact: assessment and identification of best management practices." The data contained in the spreadsheets are divided as follows: worksheet 1 includes the municipal solid waste generation data from the Brazilian municipalities studied; worksheet 2 presents the individual indicators that form the aggregate indicator; worksheet 3 presents the aggregate indicator and the classification of the municipalities; worksheet 4 provides data correlation; worksheets 5 to 10 depict boxplot graphs of the data; and worksheets 11 to 14 present graphs of individual indicators on a per capita basis and the ranking of municipalities.