Integrated Urban Waste Management Model IUWMM

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Integrated Urban Waste Management Model (IUWMM)

• Best practices presentation 16
• LCA for MSW management

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Overview

• Best Practice Proposal n. 15
• Title LCA for MSW management
• Location Bologna, Italy
• Date 2004-2005
• IUWMM Partner Proponent DICMA - University of
  Bologna
• Responsible DICMA - University of Bologna ARPA
  Bologna
• ENEA Bologna

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Practice Summary

• Introduction
• Method
• Model
• Implementation
• Results
• References

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1. Introduction

• Italian laws about waste establish dispositions
  in theme of planning for the waste management
  and make it necessary to revise planning tools,
  such as regional and provincial plans for waste
  management.
• Waste management must have effected in optimal
  territorial circles (ATO), coincident with the
  territory of the Province in such circles the
  Provinces assure an unitary management of the
  urban waste, and they predispose the waste
  management province plans.
• The application of the LCA methodology makes
  possible to support the development of the new
  PPGR of Bologna District and to supply a
  scientific support to the political choices

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1. Introduction

• For the application of the LCA methodology it has
  been used the software WISARD (Waste Integrated
  System for Assessment of Recycling), produced by
  the society Ecobilan for the English agency for
  the environment, with the purpose to study waste
  management systems.
• The WISARD code allows to build a system
  articulated in the various phases of waste
  management, as collection, disposal and recovery,
  and allows to calculate the various environmental
  impacts.
• Thank to the LCA methodology, the environmental
  impacts originated from different scenario of MSW
  management will be identified and suggestions for
  the improvement of the waste management province
  plan will be proposed

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2. Method

• The goal of this study is to evaluate and compare
  the environmental impacts of different scenarios
  of integrated waste management in the Bologna
  District using the LCA methodology.
• The scenarios have been described using data
  extrapolated on the basis of a data collection
  that refers to 2003 the presence of 950000
  inhabitants in the District and the production of
  about 566000 t of municipal solid waste have been
  anticipated for 2006.
• The Bologna District has been divided in five
  homogeneous areas.

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2. Method
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2. Method

• Three scenarios of waste management have been
  compared. They have been chosen among the
  scenarios which are under discussion for the
  preparation of the next PPGR.
• For each homogeneous area and scenario the
  environmental impacts have been assessed on the
  basis of the following impact categories global
  warming, air acidification, eutrophication,
  depletion of non renewable resources,
  eco-toxicity (sediment, terrestrial, aquatic),
  human toxicity.
• In addition to these environmental impact
  categories, the consumption of primary energy,
  the consumption of electricity and the sum of the
  emissions of non-methane volatile organic
  compounds (NMVOC), contributors to the
  photochemical oxidant formation, have been
  calculated.

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3. Model

• The chosen functional unit is the collection and
  treatment of municipal solid waste generated by
  the inhabitants of each homogeneous area of the
  Bologna District over one year, 2006 the choice
  of including waste generated over an entire year
  enables seasonal variations in quantity and
  quality to be taken into account.
• The waste fractions are followed through the
  waste management system, as shown in Figure.

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3. Model

• Each scenarios model is divided into two major
  sections collection and processing.
• In the collection, the following elements have
  been taken into account
• the production, use and end of life of the
  containers and refuse sacks
• the production, maintenance, use and end of life
  of the collection vehicles
• the collection at a transfer site including also
  the construction, use or demolition of the site
• the transportation to a processing or recovery
  unit.

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3. Model

• In the processing, the following elements have
  been included
• incineration with energy recovery
• landfill with energy recovery from the biogas to
  produce electricity
• composting with spreading of the compost
  produced
• sorting and recycling of waste fractions (paper
  and cardboard, glass, iron, non ferrous metals,
  plastics, other minor fractions) from separated
  collection.
• Construction, normal operation, which includes
  movement of machinery and consumption of fuel,
  and end of life of the sites are taken into
  account.
• Energy and materials recovery is modelled with
  the approach of the avoided inputs and outputs.

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4. Implementation

• Data collection has been carried out in
  collaboration with ARPA (the Regional Agency for
  the Environment) and will consider the integrated
  waste management system of the Bologna Province,
  which includes waste collection and transport,
  sorting, recycling, composting and incineration
  plants, landfills.
• Three scenarios referring to 2006 will be
  compared they present different types of
  collections and different waste treatment
  solutions.
• Scenario 1 (trend) shows neither modifications of
  the existing treatment plants nor introduction of
  new measures to prevent waste production or to
  increase separated collection.

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4. Implementation

• Scenario 2 (new incinerator in area 2)
  anticipates a strong increase in the fraction
  sent to incineration with energy recovery equal
  to 110000 t/y, with a percentage going from 30
  to 50 of the total waste. The target could be
  achieved by scaling up the already existing
  incineration plant, placed near Bologna, in area
  2. Moreover, measures are introduced to increase
  the separated collection up to 31 of the total
  waste.
• Scenario 3 (new incinerator in area 5)
  anticipates a lower increase of the fraction sent
  to incineration (up to 37 of the total waste)
  and a separated collection equal to 31. This
  scenario describes the situation which would
  arise from the choice of building a new
  incinerator in a mountain area at the boundaries
  of the District. With this choice the incinerator
  would be only partly fed from the urban waste
  coming from the District and would accept waste
  from outside.

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5. Results
Three scenarios of waste management system of the
Bologna District contribution of the collection
and treatment of the waste from separated
collection and of the unsorted waste.
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5. Results
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5. Results
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5. Results

• LCA is a very powerful tool for assessing the
  potential environmental impacts of different
  waste management strategies. At European level,
  it is now being applied as decision support tool
  to policy makers, but the level of knowledge of
  LCA remains worryingly low in the public domain,
  especially in Italy.
• The discussion of the results demonstrates the
  power of LCA not only to identify the best
  scenario, but also to identify the analytical
  contribution of each operation to the overall
  environmental performance of the system. The
  environmental beneficial effects of increasing
  the recycling and the incineration with energy
  recovery have been confirmed by this study.

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6. References

• Arena, U., M.L. Mastellone and F. Perugini, 2003.
  The environmental performance of alternative
  solid waste management options a life cycle
  assessment study. Chemical Engineering Journal
  96, 207222.
• Arena, U., M.L. Mastellone and F. Perugini,
  2003a. Life cycle assessment of a plastic
  packaging recycling system. International Journal
  of LCA, 8 (3),92-98.
• Azzurro, P., P. Masoni, L. Morselli and L.
  Ramponi, 2000. Life Cycle Assessment applicata al
  sistema incenerimento caso studio
  dellinceneritore di Bologna. Proceedings of
  RICICLA, Rimini, Italia, 8-11 November 2000.
• Di Maria F. and S. Saetta, 2000. Life cycle
  assessment for municipal waste management the
  case study of a 100.000 inhabitants of an Italian
  town. Proceeding of 16th International Conference
  on Solid Waste Technology and Management, 1012
  December 2000, Philadelphia.
• Di Maria, F., S. Saetta and D. Leonardi, 2003.
  Life cycle assessment of a PPV plant applied to
  an existing SUW management system. International
  Journal of Energy Research 27 (5), 481494.
• Eriksson, O., M. Carlsson Reich, B. Frostell, A.
  Bjorklund, G. Assefa, J.-O. Sundqvist, J.
  Granath, A. Baky, L. Thyselius, 2005. Municipal
  solid waste management from a system perspective.
  Journal of Cleaner Production 13, 241-252.
• Ramponi, L., T. Coleman, L. Morselli and P.
  Masoni, 2000. Applicazione della metodologia lca
  a sistemi di gestione integrata dei rifiuti in
  ambiti territoriali regionali e nazionali. Caso
  studio in Inghilterra e Galles. Proceedings of
  RICICLA, Rimini, Italia, 8-11 November 2000.