Review of LCA studies of solid waste management systems – Part II: Methodological guidance for a better practice

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used in waste management to identify strategies that prevent or minimise negative impacts on ecosystems, human health or natural resources. However, the quality of the provided support to decision- and policy-makers is strongly dependent on a proper conduct of the LCA. How has LCA been applied until now? Are there any inconsistencies in the past practice? To answer these questions, we draw on a critical review of 222 published LCA studies of solid waste management systems. We analyse the past practice against the ISO standard requirements and the ILCD Handbook guidelines for each major step within the goal definition, scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation phases of the methodology. Results show that malpractices exist in several aspects of the LCA with large differences across studies. Examples are a frequent neglect of the goal definition, a frequent lack of transparency and precision in the definition of the scope of the study, e.g. an unclear delimitation of the system boundaries, a truncated impact coverage, difficulties in capturing influential local specificities such as representative waste compositions into the inventory, and a frequent lack of essential sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Many of these aspects are important for the reliability of the results. For each of them, we therefore provide detailed recommendations to practitioners of waste management LCAs.     

Environmental analysis of a construction and demolition waste recycling plant in Portugal – Part I: Energy consumption and CO2 emissions

This work is a part of a wider study involving the economic and environmental implications of managing construction and demolition waste (CDW), focused on the operation of a large scale CDW recycling plant. This plant, to be operated in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (including the Setúbal peninsula), is analysed for a 60 year period, using primary energy consumption and CO₂eq emission impact factors as environmental impact performance indicators.Simplified estimation methods are used to calculate industrial equipment incorporated, and the operation and transport related impacts. Material recycling – sorted materials sent to other industries, to act as input – is taken into account by discounting the impacts related to industrial processes no longer needed.This first part focuses on calculating the selected impact factors for a base case scenario (with a 350 tonnes/h installed capacity), while a sensitivity analysis is provided in part two. Overall, a 60 year global primary energy consumption of 71.4 thousand toe (tonne of oil equivalent) and a total CO₂eq emission of 135.4 thousand tonnes are expected. Under this operating regime, around 563 thousand toe and 1465 thousand tonnes CO₂eq could be prevented by replacing raw materials in several construction materials industries (e.g.: ferrous and non-ferrous metals, plastics, paper and cardboard).     

Magnetic properties of biogenic selenium nanomaterials

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Bioreduction of selenium oxyanions to elemental selenium is ubiquitous; elucidating the properties of this biogenic elemental selenium (BioSe) is thus...     

Antioxidant activity and enzyme inhibitory potential of Euphorbia resinifera and E. officinarum honeys from Morocco and plant aqueous extracts

Natural products may be applied in a wide range of domains, from agriculture to food and pharmaceutical industries. In this study, the antioxidant properties and the capacity to inhibit some enzymatic activities of Euphorbia resinifera and Euphorbia officinarum aqueous extracts and honeys were assessed. The physicochemical characteristics were also evaluated. Higher amounts of iron, copper and aluminium were detected in E. officinarum honey, which may indicate environmental pollution around the beehives or inadequate storage of honey samples. This honey sample showed higher amounts of total phenols and better capacity for scavenging superoxide anion free radicals and DPPH free radicals as compared with E. resinifera honey, but poorer capacity for inhibiting lipoxygenase, acetylcholinesterase, tyrosinase and xanthine oxidase. The ratio plant mass:solvent volume (1:100) and extraction time (1 - 2 h) were associated with higher total phenols and better antioxidant activities and lipoxygenase, acetylcholinesterase and tyrosinase inhibitory activities, regardless of the plant species. The aqueous extracts had systematically higher in vitro activities than the respective honey samples.

     

Hydrocarbon biodegradation and dynamic laser speckle for detecting chemotactic responses at low bacterial concentration

We report on the biodegradation of pure hydrocarbons and chemotaxis towards these compounds by an isolated chlorophenol degrader,Pseudomonas strain H.The biochemical and phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rDNA sequence identified Pseudomonas strain H as having 99.56% similarity with P.aeruginosa PA01.This strain was able to degrade n-hexadecane,1-undecene,1-nonene,1-decene,1-dodecene and kerosene.It grew in the presence of 1-octene,while this hydrocarbons is toxic to other hydrocarbons degraders.Pseudomonas strain H was also chemotactic towards n-hexadecane,kerosene,1-undecene and 1-dodecene.These results show that this Pseudomonas strain H is an attractive candidate for hydrocarbon-containing wastewater bioremediation in controlled environments.Since the classical standard techniques for detecting chemotaxis are not efficient at low bacterial concentrations,we demonstrate the use of the dynamic speckle laser method,which is simple and inexpensive,to confirm bacterial chemotaxis at low cell concentrations (less than 105 colony-forming unit per millilitre (CFU/mL)) when hydrocarbons are the attractants.     

Associated skeletons of a new middle Triassic "Rauisuchia" from Brazil

For more than 30 million years, in early Mesozoic Pangea, ??rauisuchian?? archosaurs were the apex predators in most terrestrial ecosystems, but their biology and evolutionary history remain poorly understood. We describe a new ??rauisuchian?? based on ten individuals found in a single locality from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian) Santa Maria Formation of southern Brazil. Nine articulated and associated skeletons were discovered, three of which have nearly complete skulls. Along with sedimentological and taphonomic data, this suggests that those highly successful predators exhibited some kind of intraspecific interaction. Other monotaxic assemblages of Triassic archosaurs are Late Triassic (Norian-Rhaetian) in age, approximately 10 million years younger than the material described here. Indeed, the studied assemblage may represent the earliest evidence of gregariousness among archosaurs, adding to our knowledge on the origin of a behavior pattern typical of extant taxa.     

Face mask and medical waste generation in the City of Baguio,Philippines: its current management and GHG footprint

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - The daily use of facemask to prevent virus transmission increases the negative effect on the environment because of improper waste disposal. Due to...     

1,4-Dioxane removal from water and membrane fouling elimination using CuO-coated ceramic membrane coupled with ozone

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - 1,4-Dioxane is a synthetic cyclic ether traditionally used as a chlorinated solvent stabilizer. It is a small molecule and recalcitrant compound that...     

An Analysis of Secondary Pollutants in Buenos Aires City

Air pollutant concentrations from a monitoring campaign in Buenos Aires City, Argentina, are used to investigate the relationships between ambient levels of ozone (O₃), nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) as a function of NO _x (=NO + NO₂). This campaign undertaken by the electricity sector was aimed at elucidating the apportionment of thermal power plants to air quality deterioration. Concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) and sulphur dioxide (SO₂) were also registered. Photo stationary state (PSS) of the NO, NO₂, O₃ and peroxy radicals species has been analysed. The ‘oxidant’ level concept has been introduced, OX (=O₃ + NO₂), which varies with the level of NO _x . It is shown that this level is made up of NO _x -independent and NO _x -dependent contributions. The former is a regional contribution that equates the background O₃ level, whereas the latter is a local contribution that correlates with the level of primary pollution. Furthermore, the anticorrelation between NO₂ and O₃ levels, which is a characteristic of the atmospheric photo stationary cycle has been verified.The analysis of the concentration of the primary pollutants CO and NO strongly suggests that the vehicle traffic is the principal source of them. Levels of continuous measurements of SO₂ for Buenos Aires City are reported in this work as a complement of previously published results.     

Definition of Homogeneous Environmental Management Units for the Catalan Coast

Geographical areas constitute the basic implementation locus for integrated coastal zone management strategies and activities. Because the definition of territorial planning objectives may be affected by socioeconomic and environmental characteristics, one of the main steps in the process involves dividing the coast into homogeneous environmental management units (HEMUs). This article presents a general and simple method for regionalizing the landside of a coastal zone into HEMUs and illustrates it through application to the Catalan coast. Socioeconomic and natural (biophysical) subsystems were selected as the most appropriate dimensions of the regionalization process. Dimensions were described using 11 spatial themes, which were managed in a geographic information system environment that proved to be an adequate tool for the purpose. A final coastal zone map of four classes of HEMUs connected to local administrative units was obtained, and because it reflects the current natural and socioeconomic dynamics, it can be considered as an initial step in the planning process for the Catalan coast. Although the proposed method was developed based on the characteristics of the Catalan coast, it is general enough to be adapted and applied to most developed or developing coastal areas.