Economic Project Risk Assessment in Remediation Projects Prior to Construction: Methodology Development and Case Study Application

Probabilistic economic analysis, including uncertainty of probabilities and consequences of project risks, is not widely used in remediation projects. This article presents a project risk assessment (PRA) method to identify, quantify, and analyze risks in remediation projects. The suggested method is probabilistic and includes uncertainty analysis of input variables based on expert judgment. It was originally developed as a part of a sustainability assessment tool, but is viable as a stand‐alone tool for remediation projects. The method is applied to a case study: a former paint factory that is being redeveloped into a residential area. The PRA method is used for analyzing and comparing the project risks associated with four remediation options, all including excavation but with different degrees of onsite treatment. The result of the case study application shows which alternative has the lowest mean risk cost, the highest probability to have the lowest risk cost, and how the risk costs are distributed, but also, importantly, helps the user to prioritize between risk‐reduction measures. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals     

Deposits on single use containers--a social cost-benefit analysis of the Danish deposit system for single use drink containers.

This study compares the social costs and environmental benefits of collecting single use drink containers through the Danish deposit system with the social costs and benefits of treating the containers as part of the municipal waste-disposal system. It focuses on single use polyethylene terphthalate and glass bottles, and steel and aluminium cans. The social costs of handling these containers in the deposit system includes the costs of collection, sorting, and transportation, adjusted against the profit from selling the collected material for recycling. The social cost of incinerating these containers as municipal waste consists of the expenses for the collection, incineration of the containers and disposal of ashes. If there is any income from energy generation accompanying incineration, this is adjusted against costs. The main environmental effects related to both strategies are quantified, valuated and included in the assessment. The results of the analysis show that there are significant social costs compared to the benefits connected with the new deposit system. This is true for all four types of single use drink containers examined. All in all, Denmark bears a net social cost of 6.7 to 8.1 million Euros per year compared to a baseline of incineration with energy recovery.     

Examining the effectiveness of municipal solid waste management systems: an integrated cost-benefit analysis perspective with a financial cost modeling in Taiwan

In order to develop a sound material-cycle society, cost-effective municipal solid waste (MSW) management systems are required for the municipalities in the context of the integrated accounting system for MSW management. Firstly, this paper attempts to establish an integrated cost-benefit analysis (CBA) framework for evaluating the effectiveness of MSW management systems. In this paper, detailed cost/benefit items due to waste problems are particularly clarified. The stakeholders of MSW management systems, including the decision-makers of the municipalities and the citizens, are expected to reconsider the waste problems in depth and thus take wise actions with the aid of the proposed CBA framework. Secondly, focusing on the financial cost, this study develops a generalized methodology to evaluate the financial cost-effectiveness of MSW management systems, simultaneously considering the treatment technological levels and policy effects. The impacts of the influencing factors on the annual total and average financial MSW operation and maintenance (O&M) costs are analyzed in the Taiwanese case study with a demonstrative short-term future projection of the financial costs under scenario analysis. The established methodology would contribute to the evaluation of the current policy measures and to the modification of the policy design for the municipalities.     

An analysis of UK waste minimization clubs: key requirements for future cost effective developments

The UK waste strategy is based upon use of the best practicable environmental option (BPEO), by those making waste management decisions. BPEO is supported by the use of the waste hierarchy, with its range of preferable options for dealing with waste, and the proximity principle, where waste is treated/disposed of as close to its point of origin as possible. The national waste strategy emphasizes the key role of waste minimization and encourages industry, commerce and the public to move towards sustainable waste management practice for economic and environmental reasons. Waste minimization clubs have been used, since the early 1990s, to demonstrate to industry/commerce that reducing waste production can lead to significant financial savings. There have been around 75 such clubs in the UK and they receive support from a wide range of agencies, including the Environmental Technology Best Practice Program. The early Demonstration Clubs had significant savings to cost ratios, e.g. Aire and Calder at 8.4, but had very high costs, e.g. Aire and Calder at 400,000 pounds. It is acknowledged that the number of clubs will have to be approximately doubled in the next few years so as to have an adequate coverage of the UK. There are at present, marked regional variations in club development and cognizance needs to be taken, by facilitators, of the need for extensive coverage of the UK. Future clubs will probably have to operate in a financially constrained climate and they need to be designed to deliver significant savings and waste reduction at low cost. To aid future club design, final reports of all projects should report in a standard manner so that cost benefit analysis can be used to inform facilitators about the most effective club type. rights reserved.     

Using a composite material containing waste tire powder and polypropylene fiber cut end to recover spilled oil

The superior oil absorption capacity of recycled polypropylene (PP) fiber and waste tire powder were used to recover spilled engine oil. We used ASTM F726-99 method to evaluate oil adsorbing capability of PP fiber and found it to have a large, rapid oil sorption capacity. However, its lack of elasticity dramatically limited that capacity after repeated use. Tire powder, which absorbs less oil more slowly, is more elastic than PP fiber and can be used repeatedly up to a hundred times without losing its oil adsorption capability. We combined PP fiber and tire powder to develop a composite material capable of recovering greater amounts of oil than any of its components. This composite can be use repeatedly for at least 100 times. Thus, the material cost for recovering 1 ton of spilled oil is about USD $0.03, making it very competitive on the market.     

Application of the US decision support tool for materials and waste management

The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) launched the Resource Conservation Challenge (RCC) in 2002 to help reduce waste and move towards more sustainable resource consumption. The objective of the RCC is to help communities, industries, and the public think in terms of materials management rather than waste disposal. Reducing cost, finding more efficient and effective strategies to manage municipal waste, and thinking in terms of materials management requires a holistic approach that considers life-cycle environmental tradeoffs. The US EPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory has led the development of a municipal solid waste decision support tool (MSW-DST). The computer software can be used to calculate life-cycle environmental tradeoffs and full costs of different waste management or materials recovery programs. The environmental methodology is based on the use of life-cycle assessment and the cost methodology is based on the use of full-cost accounting. Life-cycle inventory (LCI) environmental impacts and costs are calculated from the point of collection, handling, transport, treatment, and disposal. For any materials that are recovered for recycling, offsets are calculated to reflect potential emissions savings from use of virgin materials. The use of the MSW-DST provides a standardized format and consistent basis to compare alternatives. This paper provides an illustration of how the MSW-DST can be used by evaluating ten management strategies for a hypothetical medium-sized community to compare the life-cycle environmental and cost tradeoffs. The LCI results from the MSW-DST are then used as inputs into another US EPA tool, the Tool for the reduction and assessment of chemical and other environmental impacts, to convert the LCI results into impact indicators. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate how the MSW-DST can be used to identify and balance multiple criteria (costs and environmental impacts) when evaluating options for materials and waste management. This type of approach is needed in identifying strategies that lead to reduced waste and more sustainable resource consumption. This helps to meet the goals established in the US EPA's Resource Conservation Challenge.     

An interval-parameter stochastic robust optimization model for supporting municipal solid waste management under uncertainty

A stochastic robust interval linear programming model (IPRO) was developed for supporting municipal solid waste management under uncertainty. The model improves upon the existing stochastic robust optimization (SRO) and interval linear programming (ILP) methods by allowing evaluations of trade-offs among expected costs, cost variability, and risk of violating relax constraints simultaneously, as well as reflections of complex uncertainties through both interval and stochastic theories. A long-term waste management problem was used to demonstrate the applicability of IPRO model. The results indicated that IPRO normally led to interval solutions, where waste-management alternatives could be generated by adjusting the decision-variable values within their intervals. The model could also help waste managers to identify desired policies that under various environmental, economic, system-feasibility and system-reliability constraints.     

Eco-efficiency for greenhouse gas emissions mitigation of municipal solid waste management: a case study of Tianjin, China

The issue of municipal solid waste (MSW) management has been highlighted in China due to the continually increasing MSW volumes being generated and the limited capacity of waste treatment facilities. This article presents a quantitative eco-efficiency (E/E) analysis on MSW management in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. A methodology for E/E analysis has been proposed, with an emphasis on the consistent integration of life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC). The environmental and economic impacts derived from LCA and LCC have been normalized and defined as a quantitative E/E indicator. The proposed method was applied in a case study of Tianjin, China. The study assessed the current MSW management system, as well as a set of alternative scenarios, to investigate trade-offs between economy and GHG emissions mitigation. Additionally, contribution analysis was conducted on both LCA and LCC to identify key issues driving environmental and economic impacts. The results show that the current Tianjin’s MSW management system emits the highest GHG and costs the least, whereas the situation reverses in the integrated scenario. The key issues identified by the contribution analysis show no linear relationship between the global warming impact and the cost impact in MSW management system. The landfill gas utilization scenario is indicated as a potential optimum scenario by the proposed E/E analysis, given the characteristics of MSW, technology levels, and chosen methodologies. The E/E analysis provides an attractive direction towards sustainable waste management, though some questions with respect to uncertainty need to be discussed further.     

Re-thinking incentives and penalties: Economic aspects of waste management in Italy

This paper focuses on the dynamics the formation of operational costs of waste management in Italy and the effect of economic measures. Currently incentives and penalties have been internalized by the system no differently from other cost items and revenues. This has greatly influenced the system directing it towards solutions that are often distant from the real environmental objectives. Based on an analysis of disaggregated costs of collection treatment and recovery, we provide the basic elements to compose a picture of economic management in various technical–organizational scenarios.In the light of the considerations contained in the paper it is proposed, e.g. for controlled landfills, that the ecotax, currently based on weight, could be replaced by one based on the volume consumption. Likewise, for tax reduction on disposal system, instead a pre-treatment might ask an environmental balance of the overall system.The article presents a reflection on the last hidden costs associated with the consumption of goods and packaging, and how to reduce waste production is the necessary path to be followed in ecological and economic perspectives.     

A multi-criteria assessment of scenarios on thermal processing of infectious hospital wastes: A case study for Central Macedonia

In Greece more than 14,000 tonnes of infectious hospital waste are produced yearly; a significant part of it is still mismanaged. Only one off-site licensed incineration facility for hospital wastes is in operation, with the remaining of the market covered by various hydroclave and autoclave units, whereas numerous problems are still generally encountered regarding waste segregation, collection, transportation and management, as well as often excessive entailed costs. Everyday practices still include dumping the majority of solid hospital waste into household disposal sites and landfills after sterilization, still largely without any preceding recycling and separation steps. Discussed in the present paper are the implemented and future treatment practices of infectious hospital wastes in Central Macedonia; produced quantities are reviewed, actual treatment costs are addressed critically, whereas the overall situation in Greece is discussed. Moreover, thermal treatment processes that could be applied for the treatment of infectious hospital wastes in the region are assessed via the multi-criteria decision method Analytic Hierarchy Process. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis was performed and the analysis demonstrated that a centralized autoclave or hydroclave plant near Thessaloniki is the best performing option, depending however on the selection and weighing of criteria of the multi-criteria process. Moreover the study found that a common treatment option for the treatment of all infectious hospital wastes produced in the Region of Central Macedonia, could offer cost and environmental benefits. In general the multi-criteria decision method, as well as the conclusions and remarks of this study can be used as a basis for future planning and anticipation of the needs for investments in the area of medical waste management.     

Travis Air Force Base: A greener cleanups case study

Travis Air Force Base, California, has accelerated the pace of remediation while reducing long‐term costs and cutting greenhouse gas production. This has been achieved through optimizing existing systems and processes, adopting greener cleanups best management practices, and testing and implementing innovative “green” technologies. By optimizing and replacing existing systems that used energy‐intensive infrastructure, and by promoting the use of innovative in situ technologies, the US Air Force (Air Force) led team comprised of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the performance‐based contractor CH2M, and the regulatory agencies consisting of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the California Water Board, and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, has reduced annual system operation and maintenance costs by over $200,000 per year, while reducing annual carbon dioxide production by approximately 930 tons per year. As a result of these actions, chlorinated solvent source areas have been reduced by over 99 percent in some cases, and the predicted cleanup time frame for multiple sites has been reduced by several decades. This article provides a case study for implementation of cost‐effective greener cleanup actions, and summarizes the approach taken by the Air Force led team to complete the greener cleanups self‐declaration process consistent with the ASTM International's E‐2893 Standard Guide for Greener Cleanups.     

The role of cost in remedy selection

Records of Decision from 16 environmental cleanup sites on 11 different Air Force bases were evaluated to determine if cost plays a role in remedy selection. Cost percentile (the cost of the selected remedy compared to the ranges of costs in the alternatives considered) was evaluated against the variables of risk (current and future, carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic), location, and contaminated media at the sites. Despite a statutory preference for permanent (and usually more expensive) remedies, the study found that cost is a significant factor in remedy selection. Eighty percent of the selected remedies fell in the bottom two thirds of alternatives by cost. Current carcinogenic risk and cost percentile were moderately correlated, but no significant correlation was found between the percentile of the selected remedy and future risk at the site or the location of the site. There was a moderate correlation between the contaminated medium and the percentile. Decision makers at sites with contaminated groundwater were more likely to select a high-cost alternative than sites with other contaminated media.     

Geographic information systems (GIS) based model of dairy manure transportation and application with environmental quality consideration

Survey information was used to develop a minimum cost spatial dairy manure transportation model where environmental quality and crop nutrient requirements were treated as constraints. The GIS model incorporated land use types, exact locations of dairy farms and farmlands, road networks, and distances from each dairy farm to receiving farmlands to identify dairy manure transportation routes that minimized costs relative to environmental and other constraints. Our analyses indicated that the characteristics of dairy manure, its bulk and relatively low primary N, P₂O₅ and K₂O nutrient levels limit the distribution areas or distances between the farms and the land over which the manure can be economically spread. Physical properties of the land limit the quantities of nutrients that can be applied because of excess nutrient buildup in soil and potential to harm nearby waterbodies and downstream people and places. Longer distances between dairy and farmland favor the use of commercial fertilizers due to the high cost of manure transportation. At $0.08 per ton per km transportation cost, the optimal cut-off distances for dairy manure application is 30 km for N and 15 km each for P₂O₅ and K₂O consistent rules. An analysis of dairy manure application to different crop types suggest that, on average, 1 ha of land requires 61 tons of dairy manure to meet the recommended N, P₂O₅ and K₂O needs.     

Estimating Social Impacts of a Remediation Project Life Cycle With Environmental Footprint Evaluation Tools

This article presents a methodology to calculate the social cost of sustainability metrics with environmental footprint evaluation tools. Measuring the impacts of a remediation project on society is challenging because the methods by which these impacts can be measured have not been established. To perform a complete sustainability assessment of a project's life cycle, costs borne by society in terms of environmental, economic, and community impacts must be evaluated. Two knowledge gaps have been identified among the sustainability assessments currently being performed during a remediation project's life cycle: (1) lack of methodologies available to evaluate impacts on the socioeconomic aspects of remediation and (2) lack of sustainability assessments conducted during the site characterization stage. Sustainability assessments were conducted on two case studies using the methodology proposed in this article: one during the site characterization stage and the other during remedial action. The results of this study demonstrated that costs borne by society from a remediation project are significant and metric specific. This study also highlighted the benefits of conducting a sustainability assessment at the site characterization stage using environmental footprint analysis tools, cost benefit analysis, and an evaluation of costs borne by society. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Estimating Remediation Costs at Contaminated Sites With Varying Amounts of Available Information

Environmental professionals are often tasked with projecting the cost to bring a contaminated site or portfolio of sites to regulatory closure. Fortunately, there are a number of useful guidance documents and industry publications available to assist in such cost projections. However, the usefulness of such tools is limited when adequate costing information is lacking, such as (a) the nature and extent of contamination; (b) regulatory requirements; (c) the remedial approach to be implemented; and/or (d) the duration of operation, maintenance, and monitoring activities. Despite the lack of such information, cost‐to‐closure estimates are nevertheless routinely needed and generated for internal assessments or audits, regulatory disclosures, property acquisitions, insurance claims, litigation, and other business transactions. Cost estimates are also often needed in bankruptcy proceedings where the trier of fact must estimate the total future costs associated with an environmental legacy portfolio to determine the overall value (or solvency in the case of evaluating the potential bankruptcy) of a company. This article presents a solution for developing cleanup costs for single sites or a portfolio of sites using a comprehensive, three‐tiered method that is effective over a wide range of site information. Real‐world examples of the successful application of this method are then provided, based on detailed environmental analyses that were completed for a recent bankruptcy proceeding and a case in which an estimated cleanup cost was needed in a legal proceeding. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Cement clinker: An environmental sink for residues from hazardous waste treatment in cement kilns

About 70% of all of the liquid and solid hazardous wastes commercially incinerated in the United States is being burned in cement kilns. The process inevitably results in residues, primarily heavy metals, entering the clinker and waste dusts (cement kiln dust, CKD) produced by these kilns. The effects of this trend on the nature and chemical composition of cement, actual and future, are discussed. The wastes burned by cement kilns are expected to increasingly have higher levels of heavy metals per Btu. In general, the effects are very simple to describe but have as yet unknown consequences. The present American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard does not effectively control hazardous waste burning residues in Portland Cement.The regulatory and economic pressures on CKD disposal suggest that much of it, and its heavy metal residues, will, in time, end up in the clinker and the resultant cement. The end point to the trend is the ability to make cement that passes the performance specifications while containing high levels of heavy metals. The only other alternative is to maximize the levels of heavy metals in the CKD, minimize the amount of CKD, and dispose of its as a hazardous waste.It is recommended that an effort to correlate heavy metal levels in clinker with adverse effects be undertaken, a new standard for cement containing hazardous and other waste residuals be developed, and labeling be required.     

Construction waste management based on industrial management models: a Swedish case study.

This paper describes a methodology for estimating the true internal costs of construction waste, aimed at promoting environmentally friendly waste management. The study employs cost-benefit analysis, contribution margin analysis, the polluter-pays principle and a mathematical model: the model for Efficient Use of Resources for Optimal Production Economy (EUROPE), which has been introduced previously by the author for assigning industrial costs to waste. The calculations are performed on construction waste created in a case study of a building project. Moreover, waste is regarded as, in a business sense, having the same basic status as any normal industrial product, namely the 'equality principle'. Application of the methodology is suggested to create incentives for environmental and profitability improvement in construction companies and other types of industrial sectors. The results of the case study show the generation of construction waste to substantially decrease the final operating income, due to the internal shadow price cost it creates. This paper is intended to reduce the gap between the choice of waste management procedures and their economic impact, the overall objective being to accomplish an improved industrial environmental situation.     

Using community relations to reduce costs during remediation projects

Almost everyone who has been involved in a site remediation project has seen schedules slip and costs escalate due to political pressure from the public or the press. While focusing on remediation technologies and containment techniques to control costs, many organizations have neglected a major cost driver—public opinion. This article examines community relations from the perspective of an organization trying to control costs during a site remediation project. It details the strong correlation between the cost of a site cleanup and the level of public dissatisfaction and provides an organization with specific strategies on how to use proven communications techniques to lower costs. Examination of several case studies is provided, including a study involving a site in which community representatives actively worked to reduce project costs. It is clear that any responsible cleanup must be protective of public health and the environment. But it is becoming increasingly apparent that wise allocation of available resources has a profound effect on the program's ability to ensure public and environmental safety. In many cases, it has been proven that some costly cleanups—for example, involving excavation—sometimes actually increase risk by creating an exposure pathway where none existed before. In turn, such cleanups waste resources that are needed elsewhere. The challenge in dealing with this complicated issue is to help stakeholders understand the true ramifications of the choices that are faced at each site. If these stakeholders feel uninformed, powerless, or excluded from the process, it is likely that they will be unable to enter a productive discussion. The community relations programs outlined in documents such as a Superfund guidance can be helpful in familiarizing the community with site-related issues and with gathering public input. These activities act as a baseline for the programs discussed in this article. However, existing programs are not focused on providing a strategic advantage in reaching cleanup solutions and balancing health and environmental considerations with economic considerations.     

Validation of an Automated Multiunit Composting System

Biodegradable packaging has high potential to help solve the crisis of non-biodegradable plastic waste causing an increase in the footprint of landfills. However, more research needs to be executed to develop a larger assortment of biodegradable plastics for numerous applications and to make them more economical to manufacture. This paper discusses the design and validation of an automated composting system (AMUCS) that fits the requirements of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) 5338-11 standard. The results of the experiments show that the AMUCS was able to create and maintain the conditions for biodegradation of biodegradable polymers in compost using microcrystalline cellulose. The biodegradation caused by the composting environment was observed visually with the naked eye and on the micro scale with an environmental scanning electron microscope. The magnitude of biodegradation was measured by calculating the carbon metabolized from the samples. The carbon metabolized from the three compost replicates was consistent and linear, and there was only an 8 % difference between the non-biodegradable low density polyethylene and the compost. For the biodegradation study according to ASTM D 5338-11, the experiment was validated with the use of cellulose as a reference material. Under controlled composting conditions, the mineralization of microcrystalline cellulose yielded 72.05 %, which is slightly higher than the 70 % mineralization requirement.