LCA 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 of using life cycle assessment for waste management. Some projects of general interest are:
Projects
- Rethinking municipal tariff systems to improve urban waste governance
The aim of the LIFE‑REthinkWASTE project is to provide a governance scheme for municipalities to increase waste separation, reduction and recovery rates and to simultaneously reduce the waste bills of households. - Management of ladle refractory brick waste – E-CO-LadleBrick
The main aims of the E‑CO‑LadleBrick project are to achieve an innovative waste management for worn ladle bricks in steel mills by implementing Circular Economy criteria based in a "4R model" (Reduce, Reuse, Remanufacture and Recycle) - Social footprint of packaging waste prevention October 2019
The aim of this project was to conduct a social footprint assessment of a packaging waste prevention campaign carried out in Zamudio. - Water reuse in O&G sector – INTEGROIL May 2019
The INTEGROIL project aims to supply and validate the first application of an integrated solution to improve the treatment of produced water and wastewater of the oil and gas (O&G) industry, as well as to produce water of enough quality to be reused, increasing the sustainability of the whole process. - Thermal energy recovery – THERBIOR May 2019
This project focuses on the development, implementation and diffusion of technologies to improve energy efficiency in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) using a fully off‑grid solar‑assisted heat pump (SHP) system. - DESIRE January 2018
Developing and applying an optimal set of indicators and models to analyse and monitor the European progress towards resource efficiency. - Critical review – reuse of household waste December 2017
Peer review of the Danish EPA project: “Miljø‑ og samfundsøkonomisk vurdering af øget genanvendelse af husholdningsaffald". - Sustainability assessment of a deposit return system for packaging waste in Spain June 2017
The project (ARIADNA) aimed at providing an environmental, economic and social assessment of the implementation in Spain of a deposit return system (DRS) for some plastic and glass beverage containers present in municipal solid waste (MSW). The consequences of implementing this system were compared to those of the existing system, based on kerbside collection of these materials. - CREEA April 2014
Data for the Global Resource Footprint of Nations. Carbon, water, land and materials embodied in trade and final consumption. - FORWAST November 2009
The objective of the FORWAST project was to forecasts the material stocks, waste amounts and related environmental impacts in EU‑27 for the following 25 years under different scenarios of waste prevention, waste treatment and recycling. - Holiwast June 2007 and closed 2017
The Holiwast Decision Support Tool was a web‑based tool that allowed simultaneous comparisons of up to five stakeholder views or scenarios of municipal waste management policies. - Life Cycle Based Cost-Benefit Assessment of Waste Management Options May 2006
The study analysed municipal solid waste treatment scenarios and provided data, methodological improvements, results and strategy recommendations for the new EU member states. The recommendations were generally applicable to municipal solid waste treatment.