The potential contribution of sustainable waste management to energy use and greenhouse gas emission reduction in the Netherlands

Future limitations on the availability of selected resources stress the need for increased material efficiency. In addition, in a climate-constrained world the impact of resource use on greenhouse gas emissions should be minimized. Waste management is key to achieve sustainable resource management. Ways to use resources more efficiently include prevention of waste, reuse of products and materials, and recycling of materials, while incineration and anaerobic digestion may recover part of the embodied energy of materials. This study used iWaste, a simulation model, to investigate the extent to which savings in energy consumption and CO₂ emissions can be achieved in the Netherlands through recycling of waste streams versus waste incineration, and to assess the extent to which this potential is reflected in the LAP2 (currently initiated policy). Three waste streams (i.e. household waste, bulky household waste, and construction and demolition waste) and three scenarios compare current policy to scenarios that focus on high-quality recycling (Recycling+) or incineration with increased efficiency (Incineration+). The results show that aiming for more and high-quality recycling can result in emission reductions of 2.3 MtCO₂ annually in the Netherlands compared to the reference situation in 2008. The main contributors to this reduction potential are found in optimizing the recycling of plastics (PET, PE and PP), textiles, paper, and organic waste. A scenario assuming a higher energy conversion efficiency of the incinerator treating the residual waste stream, achieves an emission reduction equivalent to only one third (0.7 MtCO₂/year) of the reduction achieved in the Recycling+ scenario. Furthermore, the results of the study show that currently initiated policy only partially realizes the full potential identified. A focus on highest quality use of recovered materials is essential to realize the full potential energy and CO₂ emission reduction identified for the Netherlands. Detailed economic and technical analyses of high quality recycling are recommended to further evaluate viable integrated waste management policies.     

Household income,living and working conditions of dumpsite waste pickers in Bantar Gebang: Toward integrated waste management in Indonesia

This paper clarifies household income, living and working conditions of dumpsite waste pickers at Bantar Gebang final disposal site for municipal solid waste generated in Jakarta, and investigates the feasibility of integrating the informal sector into formal waste management in Indonesia. The first author did fieldwork for totally 16 months at the site and quantitative field surveys were conducted twice during the period. All respondents in the first round quantitative survey (n = 1390) were categorized as follows: waste pickers, family workers, wage labors, bosses, family of the bosses, housewives, pupils/students, preschoolers, the unemployed, and others. Based on the results of the second round quantitative survey (n = 69 households), their average household income was estimated to be approximately US 216 dollars per month (n = 59 households), which was virtually equivalent to the minimum wage in Jakarta in 2013. Living conditions of scavengers at the site were horrible, and their working conditions were dangerous due to medical waste and other sharp waste. Polluted groundwater was one of the serious environmental problems at the site. Despite the social, health and environmental problems, they were attracted to the freedom of entering the informal recycling system in Bantar Gebang and withdrawing from the system, in which a lot of opportunities were provided for the people having few marketable skills to obtain cash earnings. The freedom of their choice should be guaranteed as a prerequisite before integrating the informal sector into formal waste management. Furthermore, special attentions are required when incomes of scavengers are the same level as minimum wages and the national economy is rapidly growing, because scavengers cannot easily change their jobs due to few marketable skills. Indonesian national waste laws and regulations should be properly applied to facilitate a socialization process at final disposal sites. Measures need to be taken to prevent children from working as informal recycling actors, especially for waste pickers aged 15 or younger.     

Recycling for small island tourism developments: Food waste composting at Sandals Emerald Bay,Exuma, Bahamas

The ability for small islands to meet sustainability goals is exacerbated by the costs of transporting goods on, and then, wastes off the islands. At small scales, recycling can be prohibitive and complicated by labor costs; the need to profitably recycle and manage solid waste output from tourism is complicated by scale and available technologies. A multi-year study documents the amount of solid waste generated on Great Exuma (Exuma), The Commonwealth of The Bahamas since 2010 with one year of benchmarking, then limited recycling of food waste generation by an all-inclusive resort, Sandals Emerald Bay (SEB). For the island of Exuma, the rapid increase in the rate of accumulation of solid waste associated with a large destination resort has led to an increase in pests such as rats and flies, along with an increased occurrence of fires associated with unburied solid waste. Solid waste has accumulated faster than the island solid waste management can absorb. SEB kitchen and hotel operations contributes an estimated 36% of all solid waste generated on the island, about 1752 t¹ out of a total of 4841 t generated on the island in 2013 (exclusive of vegetation waste). Based on 4 weeks of benchmarking, 48.5% of all the waste coming out of the SEB resort is compostable, organic waste, but waste composition varies widely over time. Exuma Waste Management (EWM) and Recycle Exuma (RE), both privately-held Bahamian businesses, worked for one year (2012–2013) with SEB resort to implement a benchmarking and pilot recycling project to meet Earth Check green resort certification requirements. This paper outlines the costs and resources required for food waste recycling and some barriers to implementing more effective solid waste management for the tourism industry on small islands.     

Economic viability of packaging waste recycling systems: A comparison between Belgium and Portugal

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive has had an undeniable impact on waste management throughout the European Union. Whereas recycling and recovery targets are the same, member states still enjoy a considerable degree of freedom with respect to the practical organization and management strategies adopted. Nevertheless, in all cases, the industry (which brings packaging material onto the market) should be responsible for the costs associated with packaging waste recycling/recovery (following the extended producer responsibility principle). The current paper compares and contrasts the institutional frameworks and financial costs and benefits of waste management operators for Belgium and Portugal. The unit costs of selective collection and sorting of packaging waste are provided for both countries. In Belgium, the costs of recycling seem to be fully supported by the industry (through Fost Plus, the national Green Dot agency). In Portugal the fairness of the recycling system depends on the perspective adopted (economic or strictly financial). Adopting a strictly financial perspective, it seems that Sociedade Ponto Verde (SPV, the Portuguese Green Dot agency) should increase the transfers to local authorities. However, the conclusions differ for this country if the avoided costs with refuse collection and other treatment are taken into account.     

The costs and benefits of packaging waste management systems in Europe: the perspective of local authorities

Local authorities are generally in charge of household packaging waste management operations, particularly in countries with Green Dot schemes or similar extended producer responsibility systems. This leads to the need of establishing a system of financial transfers between the packaging industry and the local authorities (regarding the costs involved in selective collection and sorting). In the present study, the costs and benefits of recycling, from the perspective of local authorities, are compared for Portugal, Belgium and Italy (in Lombardia region), adopting the same economic–financial methodology. The results show that the industry is not paying the net cost of packaging waste management. If the savings attained by diverting packaging waste from other treatment operations are not considered, it seems that the industry should increase the financial support to local authorities. However, if the avoided costs with other treatments are considered as a benefit for local authorities, the costs are generally outweighed by the benefits, and the financial support could, therefore, be reduced.     

Life cycle analysis of silane recycling in amorphous silicon-based solar photovoltaic manufacturing

Amorphous silicon (a-Si:H)-based solar cells have the lowest ecological impact of photovoltaic (PV) materials. In order to continue to improve the environmental performance of PV manufacturing using proposed industrial symbiosis techniques, this paper performs a life cycle analysis (LCA) on both conventional 1-GW scaled a-Si:H-based single junction and a-Si:H/microcrystalline-Si:H tandem cell solar PV manufacturing plants and such plants coupled to silane recycling plants. Both the energy consumed and greenhouse gas emissions are tracked in the LCA, then silane gas is reused in the manufacturing process rather than standard waste combustion. Using a recycling process that results in a silane loss of only 17% instead of conventional processing that loses 85% silane, results in an energy savings of 81,700 GJ and prevents 4400 tons of CO₂ from being released into the atmosphere per year for the single junction plant. Due to the increased use of silane for the relatively thick microcrystalline-Si:H layers in the tandem junction plants, the savings are even more substantial – 290,000 GJ of energy savings and 15.6 million kg of CO₂ eq. emission reductions per year. This recycling process reduces the cost of raw silane by 68%, or approximately $22.6 million per year for a 1-GW a-Si:H-based PV production facility and over $79 million per year for tandem manufacturing. The results are discussed and conclusions are drawn about the technical feasibility and environmental benefits of silane recycling in an eco-industrial park centered around a-Si:H-based PV manufacturing plants.     

Design and implementation study of a Permanent Selective Collection Program (PSCP) on a University campus in Brazil

The selective collection and recycling of municipal solid waste are presented as stages of an integrated program of solid waste management to minimize the environmental impact of the treatment and final disposal of solid waste. Therefore, this program aims to save natural resources, such as energy and raw materials, in the manufacture of new products and to conserve areas for sites, such as to minimize the use of existing landfill sites, and to minimize the need for new waste treatment sites. A university is composed of educational professionals aware of their societal responsibilities, and, therefore, they play a fundamental role in the management of the university's solid waste. This study presents the design and implementation of a Permanent Selective Collection Program (PSCP) at the Federal University of Itajubá (Universidade Federal de Itajubá, UNIFEI), Itajubá-MG, Brazil. The material requirements for initiating the PSCP have been identified, and an action plan for continuous program improvement, which is initially based on the collection of performance indicator data for the PSCP campus, has been developed. Finally, the data from the PSCP performance indicators and software from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Landfill Gas Generation Model (LandGEM) and the Waste Reduction Model (WARM), were used to evaluate the impact of implementing PSCP in terms of energy and the generation of greenhouse gases (GHG). The results were promising, showing that there has been an improvement, since the inception of PSCP in 2006, in separating materials for selective collection, even though paper (41.00 wt%), plastic (6.00 wt%) and organic matter (26.00 wt%) are still highly generated wastes. The WARM simulations for a scenario in which 90% of the waste is sent for recycling resulted in an economy of −7 tCO₂ or −74.91 GJ (on an energy basis). The LandGEM (USEPA) simulations estimated 1424.60 kWh of energy in the peak production year.     

Survey of household waste composition and quantities in Abuja,Nigeria

Inadequate management of household solid waste is a serious problem in many developing cities. The study aimed to evaluate the quantities and composition of household solid waste generation in Abuja within different socioeconomic groups. The wastes from 74 households across different socioeconomic levels in Abuja were collected, weighted and classified on a daily basis for seven days in February 2012. The result showed that the average daily per capita household waste generation is 0.634 kg/capita/day. The characteristic of solid waste in Abuja are typical for the developing cities and dominated by organic waste. Households waste consisted of 63.6% organic waste, 9.7% paper, 8.7% plastics, 3.2% metal, 2.6% glass, 1.6% textile and 10.6% others (unclassified) and the bulk density was 240 kg/m³. The evaluation of relationship between income and daily per capita household waste generation showed a positive relationship. The study revealed a statistically significant difference between household size and daily per capita household waste generation in high-income group; a slight significant difference between household size and daily per capita household waste generation in medium income group and no statistically significant difference between household size and daily per capita household waste generation in low-income group.     

Environmental benefits from the use of the residual biomass in nurseries

Every year, nurseries waste about 40 t of residual biomass for each ha of potted plants cultivation. The European nursery sector deals with about 90,000 ha of cultivated land and 120,000 ha of nurseries, with a turnover of 19.8 billion Euros in 2011. In recent years, a number of Italian projects highlighted that GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions for the nursery sector range between 37 tCO₂eq/ha/year and 45 tCO₂eq/ha/year for potted plants, mainly due to the consumption of electric energy, plastics and peat. Moreover, other studies analyse the impacts associated to nurseries, recommending best practices for energy reductions and waste recycle or reuse. Therefore, the present work focused its attention to the possible environmental benefits associated to the reuse of residues (wood and substrate) of potted plants that are discarded from the nursery production chain. GHG emissions and fossil energy requirement were quantified by considering the CO₂eq (CO₂ equivalent) and the CER (cumulative energy requirement) respectively, in order to assess the environmental impacts of two different scenarios proposed for the materials recovery. Final results highlighted that the solutions which are able to recover the substrate and the wood allow impact reductions compared to landfill disposal. In particular, the scenario consisting in the immediate separation of the substrate from the root-plant system and the successive chipping of wood for energetic reuse, allows higher savings than those obtainable through shredding and subsequent wind separation. Moreover, for what concerns the CO₂eq, an adequate use of the residual biomass make it possible to compensate the GHG emissions of the nurseries up to 15%.     

The effects on waste reduction and recycling rates when different components of the waste stream are counted

States differ in the components or solid waste management activities which they include when determining solid waste reduction and recycling rates. Thus, when attempting to draw comparisons among states, confusion arises in two ways: (1) use of two types of rates; and (2) use of different components or activities when calculating a given rate. This paper presents a mathematical basis for understanding the impacts on rate calculations when variations occur in the components and activities included in those calculations. Estimates of the incremental changes occurring in the rate calculations when incineration or selected components such as yard waste, construction and demolition wastes, and junked automobiles, are added to a base of municipal solid waste constituents are found using national data. Finally, the achieved rates reported by states counting different combinations are compared.     

Environmental impacts of different food waste resource technologies and the effects of energy mix

The environmental impacts of food waste management strategies and the effects of energy mix were evaluated using a life cycle assessment model, EASEWASTE. Three different strategies involving landfill, composting and combined digestion and composting as core technologies were investigated. The results indicate that the landfilling of food waste has an obvious impact on global warming, although the power recovery from landfill gas counteracts some of this. Food waste composting causes serious acidification (68.0 PE) and nutrient enrichment (76.9 PE) because of NH₃ and SO₂ emissions during decomposition. Using compost on farmland, which can marginally reduce global warming (−1.7 PE), acidification (−0.8 PE), and ecotoxicity and human toxicity through fertilizer substitution, also leads to nutrient enrichment as neutralization of emissions from N loss (27.6 PE) and substitution (−12.8 PE). A combined digestion and composting technology lessens the effects of acidification (−12.2 PE), nutrient enrichment (−5.7 PE), and global warming (−7.9 PE) mainly because energy is recovered efficiently, which decreases emissions including SO₂, Hg, NO_x, and fossil CO₂ during normal energy production. The change of energy mix by introducing more clean energy, which has marginal effects on the performance of composting strategy, results in apparently more loading to acidification and nutrient enrichment in the other two strategies. These are mainly because the recovered energy can avoid fewer emissions than before due to the lower background values in power generation. These results provide quantitative evidence for technical selection and pollution control in food waste management.     

An energetic life cycle assessment of C&D waste and container glass recycling in Cape Town,South Africa

This study presents the results of a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) on the energy requirements and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission implications of recycling construction and demolition (C&D) rubble and container glass in Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town is a medium sized city in a developing country with a growing population and a rising middle class, two factors that are resulting in increased generation of solid waste. The City is constrained in terms of landfill space and competing demands for municipal resources.The LCA assessment was based on locally gathered data, supplemented with ecoinvent life cycle inventory data modified to the local context. The results indicated that recycling container glass instead of landfilling can achieve an energy savings of 27% and a GHG emissions savings of 37%, with a net savings still being achieved even if collection practices are varied. The C&D waste results, however, showed net savings only for certain recycling strategies. Recycling C&D waste can avoid up to 90% of the energy and GHG emissions of landfilling when processed and reused onsite but, due to great dependence on haulage distances, a net reduction of energy use and GHG emissions could not be confidently discerned for offsite recycling. It was also found that recycling glass achieves significantly greater savings of energy and emissions than recycling an equivalent mass of C&D waste.The study demonstrated that LCA provides an important tool to inform decisions on supporting recycling activities where resources are limited. It also confirmed other researchers’ observations that strict adherence to the waste management hierarchy will not always result in the best environmental outcome, and that more nuanced analysis is required. The study found that the desirability of recycling from an energy and climate perspective cannot be predicted on the basis of whether such recycling conserves a non-renewable material. However, recycling that replaces a virgin product from an energy-intensive production process appears to be more robustly beneficial than recycling that replaces a product with little embodied energy. Particular caution is needed when applying the waste management hierarchy to the latter situations.     

Potential energy production from organic waste and its environmental and economic impacts at a tertiary institution in Palestine

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the most well-known biomass resources that can be utilized to produce renewable energy. Numerous countries are plagued by the proliferation of waste, particularly organic waste that can be utilized for energy recovery. Palestine suffers from inefficient solid waste management, and only recently have a few projects focused on bioenergy production been implemented. Throughout the years, the city of Tulkarm experiences power outages which cause a challenge to the Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie campus in Tulkarm. Thus, the possibility of energy recovery from the organic portion in Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie was evaluated. The analysis of an economic impact included discussions of a number of economic aspects, including Levelized cost of energy, internal rate of return, present worth, annual worth, and payback period. On the other hand, a carbon dioxide savings analysis and gas emission were evaluated. The outcomes of the energy optimization demonstrated that the suggested system could supply the institution with an average of roughly 7 MWh of electrical energy. According to the economic study, this project offers 0.25 million dollars in present value, 0.144 million dollars in annual value, a 13 percent internal rate of return, a payback period of 6 years, and a levelized cost of energy of 0.11 dollars for each kWh generated. Additionally, the environmental assessment revealed that this system might reduce CO₂ emissions by around 8,343,778 tons. For effective waste management, energy recovery, and emission reduction, it is advised to implement anaerobic digestion technology.     

The use of bio-waste to revegetate eroded land areas in Ylläs,Northern Finland: Toward a zero waste perspective of tourism in the Finnish Lapland

Lapland is one of the most attractive nature-tourism areas in Europe, and tourism is vital for local economy. However, recreational tourist activities such as skiing, hiking and horse riding deteriorate the unique and vulnerable nature of Northern Finland. Erosion and wearing of tourist areas negatively affects biodiversity and ecosystem services and reduce the attractiveness of the region. Tourism is also the source of other environmental disturbances such as wastes. Currently, in Lapland, the prevalent waste treatment method is disposal, and wastes are transported over long distances due to lack of recipient facilities for waste management. The suggestion for sustainable waste management Scenario presented in this paper is to find a synergistic solution to both of these problems, by local treatment of bio-waste in an anaerobic digestor and utilization of digestate to revegetate eroded land. It is proposed that bio-waste is co-digested with sewage sludge and offal from slaughterhouses in Ylläs in the municipality of Kolari. An estimated 500–1000 t of digestate could be produced and used in tourist areas annually. Experiences from existing seasonal bio-waste collection schemes and interviews of local tourist enterprises and tourists indicate that there is willingness to extend the source separation of wastes. Assessment of the digestion Scenario suggests that economic costs of investment could be offset by avoided costs and by additional environmental and social benefits. It is concluded that this zero waste approach could lead to an improved image of Lapland as a sustainable tourist destination.     

Solid Waste Management in Nigeria: Problems and Issues

/ This paper is a presentation of the problems of solid waste management in Nigeria and certain important issues that must be addressed in order to achieve success. At the core of the problems of solid waste management are the absence of adequate policies, enabling legislation, and an environmentally stimulated and enlightened public. Government policies on the environment are piecemeal where they exist and are poorly implemented. Public enlightenment programs lacked the needed coverage, intensity, and continuity to correct the apathetic public attitude towards the environment. Up to now the activities of the state environmental agencies have been hampered by poor funding, inadequate facilities and human resources, inappropriate technology, and an inequitable taxation system. Successful solid waste management in Nigeria will require a holistic program that will integrate all the technical, economic, social, cultural, and psychological factors that are often ignored in solid waste programs.KEY WORDS: Solid waste; Management; Problems; Solutions; Nigeria     

Environmental resource footprinting of drug manufacturing: Effects of scale-up and tablet dosage

The formulation and scale-up of batch processes is one of the major challenges in the development of pharmaceutical dosage forms and at the same time a significant resource demanding process which is generally overlooked in environmental sustainability assessments. First, this paper proposes general trends in the experience curve of cumulative resource consumption of pharmaceutical tablet manufacturing of PREZISTA^® 800 mg through wet granulation (WG) at four consecutive scales in both R&D and manufacturing environments (resp. WG1 = 1 kg/h, WG5 = 5 kg/h, WG30 = 30 kg/h and WG240 = 240 kg/h). Second, the authors aim at evaluating the environmental impact from a life cycle perspective of a daily consumption of PREZISTA^® 2× 400 mg tablets versus the bioequivalent PREZISTA^® 800 mg tablet which was launched to enhance patient compliance. Environmental sustainability assessment was conducted at three different system boundaries, which enables identification, localization and eventually reduction of burdens, in this case natural resource extraction. Exergy Analysis (EA) was used at process level (α) and plant level (β) while a cradle-to-gate Exergetic Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA) was conducted at the overall industrial level (γ) by means of the CEENE method (Cumulative Exergy Extraction from the Natural Environment). Life cycle stages taken into account are Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) production, Drug Product (DP) production and Packaging. At process level (α), the total resource extraction for the manufacturing of one daily dose of PREZISTA^® (800 mg tablet) amounted up to 0.44 MJ_ex at the smallest scale (WG1) while this amount proved to be reduced by 58%, 79% and 83% at WG5, WG30 and WG240 respectively. Expanding the boundaries to the overall industrial level (γ) reveals that the main resource demand is at the production of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API), excipients, packaging materials and cleaning media used in DP production. At the largest scale (WG240) the use of cleaning media during DP production contributes considerably less to the total resource extraction. Overall, the effect of scale-up and learning on resource consumption during DP production showed to possess a power-law experience curve y = 2.40 * x^−0.57 when shifting from WG1 (smallest lab scale) to WG240 (industrial manufacturing). Tablet dosage (2× 400 mg versus 1× 800 mg) did not significantly affect the absolute environmental burden. However, the relative contribution of resource categories did change due to the different production technology. It could be concluded that in meeting social and economic demands by launching the PREZISTA^® 800 mg tablet, no trade-off in environmental burden occurred. On the long term, future research should strive to take into account R&D processes and all services related to pipeline activities taking place prior to market launch and eventually to allocate impacts to the final product.     

Waste Management in the European Union: National Self-Sufficiency and Harmonization at the Expense of Economic Efficiency?

/ Since 1975, the European Union (EU) has developed an impressive body of waste management legislation, although, according to the principle of subsidiarity, responsibilities belong to the most local level at which the tasks can be carried out effectively. Using economic theory, this paper examines several factors that influence the efficient distribution of regulatory authority among the EU and the member states. We specifically analyze the role of harmonization that, in our opinion, will often lead to an overcentralization. Within this context, a second issue is becoming more important, as ongoing discussions show. If no consensus can be reached about harmonization, should member states be allowed to stop cross-border shipments of waste, or should the EU strive for a common market for waste? We take the position that most objections against waste shipments are not convincing, especially if the member states implement minimum standards for landfills and waste processing facilities and common information and control systems. Competition between different national regulations within adequate constraints that, e.g., control transboundary externalities leads to more efficient waste management structures in Europe than national self-sufficiency or centralized decision-making at the EU level. KEY WORDS: Waste management; European Union; Subsidiarity; Institutional competition; Harmonization; Cross-border shipments of waste     

A Comparison of Waste Reduction Practices and the New Environmental Paradigm in Four Southern Chinese Areas

On domestic waste recycling, it was found that source separation of domestic waste in mainland China was supported by 85% of the urban population and about 11–13% of the household waste was recovered and sold by the householders for financial gains. It was also found that the lower income group tended to recover a greater portion of waste, indicating that voluntary waste recovery activities in mainland China were carried out largely due to economic reasons. Thus, the Western type of source separation program in which residents are requested to separate recyclables for the community may not be welcomed in mainland China. In Hong Kong, despite the presence of community waste recovery programs, the recovery of domestic waste is only about 6% and is therefore less than those of the mainland Chinese cities surveyed. On the choice of source separation programs, it was found that Hong Kong people ranked familiarity a more important criterion than convenience. Therefore, the collection frequency of recyclables and time and place for setting out recyclables should be as similar to those of normal waste collection as possible to attract high participation in source separation programs.