Decision support for waste management
Life cycle assessment is an effective technique to choose between waste management options. Very often, the economically preferable option is also the environmentally preferable.
We have many years of experience in the waste management field. Some projects of general interest are:
Municipal waste management studies using life cycle assessment approaches – aimed at the new EU member states, but with generally applicable conclusions, see separate project page.
Holiwast Decision Support Tool - a web-based tool that allows simultaneous comparisons of up to five stakeholder views or scenarios of municipal waste management policies. It is developed as part of an EU research project, see http://holiwast.brgm.fr/. The purpose of the decision support tool is to elucidate differences in understanding and opinions between the different stakeholders involved in municipal waste management decisions. For each scenario or stakeholder, it is possible to model different waste compositions, policy instruments, constraints and acceptable technologies. Results are presented in terms of differences between scenarios or stakeholders and in terms of environmental impacts and economic costs. The results are intended as a starting point for a dialogue between the stakeholders, to open up for an understanding of the differences in opinions, and eventually facilitate an agreement on the factual basis for decision making. The decision support tool can be used for free.
Forwast - Forecasts of the material stocks, waste amounts and related environmental impacts in EU-27 for the next 25 years under different scenarios of waste prevention, waste treatment and recycling. An EU Research project combining historical resource statistics, production and trade statistics, monetary and physical input-output tables, material intensity and material composition data, stock change and product lifetime data, and emissions data for different waste management options. The project involves substantial data mining and the creation of a multi-material, physical input-output database for EU-27. Project homepage: http://forwast.brgm.fr/.
Haztrain - Hazardous waste management training programme. A trans-national environmental training project developing a web based product that both identifies hazardous components of waste and also provides users with a training/guidance package on several aspects of hazardous waste management according to best practice principles and in line with national policies and programmes in 8 EU countries – Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain (The Basque Country). HAZTRAIN is flexible in nature, with a number of modular components that are independent.
The project is co-funded by the European Commission Leonardo da Vinci Community Vocational Training Action Programme. Project homepage: www.haztrain.org.
Waste oil LCAs – review to support national waste authorities in their response to the EU consultation on the Waste Oils Directive.