Review of LCA studies of solid waste management systems – Part I: Lessons learned and perspectives

The continuously increasing solid waste generation worldwide calls for management strategies that integrate concerns for environmental sustainability. By quantifying environmental impacts of systems, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool, which can contribute to answer that call. But how, where and to which extent has it been applied to solid waste management systems (SWMSs) until now, and which lessons can be learnt from the findings of these LCA applications? To address these questions, we performed a critical review of 222 published LCA studies of SWMS. We first analysed the geographic distribution and found that the published studies have primarily been concentrated in Europe with little application in developing countries. In terms of technological coverage, they have largely overlooked application of LCA to waste prevention activities and to relevant waste types apart from household waste, e.g. construction and demolition waste. Waste management practitioners are thus encouraged to abridge these gaps in future applications of LCA. In addition to this contextual analysis, we also evaluated the findings of selected studies of good quality and found that there is little agreement in the conclusions among them. The strong dependence of each SWMS on local conditions, such as waste composition or energy system, prevents a meaningful generalisation of the LCA results as we find it in the waste hierarchy. We therefore recommend stakeholders in solid waste management to regard LCA as a tool, which, by its ability of capturing the local specific conditions in the modelling of environmental impacts and benefits of a SWMS, allows identifying critical problems and proposing improvement options adapted to the local specificities.     

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.     

Risk assessment of trace elements in the stomach contents of Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins and Finless Porpoises in Hong Kong waters

The potential health risks due to inorganic substances, mainly metals, was evaluated for the two resident marine mammals in Hong Kong, the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin (Sousa chinensis) and the Finless Porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides). The stomachs from the carcasses of twelve stranded dolphins and fifteen stranded porpoises were collected and the contents examined. Concentrations of thirteen trace elements (Ag, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Se, V and Zn) were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). An assessment of risks of adverse effects was undertaken using two toxicity guideline values, namely the Reference Dose (RfD), commonly used in human health risk assessment, and the Toxicity Reference Value (TRV), based on terrestrial mammal data. The levels of trace metals in stomach contents of dolphins and porpoises were found to be similar. Risk quotients (RQ) calculated for the trace elements showed that risks to the dolphins and porpoises were generally low and within safe limits using the values based on the TRV, which are less conservative than those based on the RfD values. Using the RfD-based values the risks associated with arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel and mercury were comparatively higher. The highest RQ was associated with arsenic, however, most of the arsenic in marine organisms should be in the non-toxic organic form, and thus the calculated risk is likely to be overestimated.     

Zinc removal from synthetic waters using magnetite/graphene oxide composites

The removal of heavy metals from wastewater has become a global challenge, which demands the continuous study of efficient and low-cost treatment alternatives such as adsorption. In this research, the removal of zinc was evaluated using batch adsorption processes with nonconventional materials such as graphene oxide (GO), magnetite (MG), and their composites (GO:MG), formulated with three weight ratios (2:1, 1:1, and 1:2). Graphene was synthesized by the modified Marcano method, using pencil lead graphite as a precursor. MG and the composites were synthesized by chemical coprecipitation of ferrous sulfate and ferric chloride. The materials were characterized by Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method to determine the functional groups, microstructural and morphological characteristics, and specific surface area. Batch adsorption tests were carried out to optimize the adsorbent dose and contact time with zinc solutions of 10 ppm. Zinc adsorption reached equilibrium at 2 h, with an optimal dose between 0.25 and 1.0 g/L. The maximum zinc removal efficiencies/adsorption capacities were 98.6%/165.6, 83.4%/47.6, 83.5%/21.9, 72.8%/19.9, and 82.2%/9.25 mg/g using GO, 2GO:1MG, 1GO:1MG, 1GO:2MG, and MG, respectively. Furthermore, the analysis of the isotherm and adsorption kinetics models determined that the adsorption processes using MG and the composites fit the Sips and pseudo-second-order models.     

Economic growth in selected G20 countries: How do different pollution emissions matter?

Environment, Development and Sustainability - This study incorporates pollutant emissions into the growth model with the presence of institutional quality and exports as control variables. The...     

Acute ecotoxicity and genotoxicity assessment of two wastewater treatment units

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Water contamination by discharge of untreated or poorly treated wastewater into water bodies is a current issue that may cause harm to humans. Water...     

Long-term Hg pollution-induced structural shifts of bacterial community in the terrestrial isopod (Porcellio scaber) gut

In previous studies we detected lower species richness and lower Hg sensitivity of the bacteria present in egested guts of Porcellio scaber (Crustacea, Isopoda) from chronically Hg polluted than from unpolluted environment. Basis for such results were further investigated by sequencing of 16S rRNA genes of mercury-resistant (Hg^r) isolates and clone libraries. We observed up to 385 times higher numbers of Hg^r bacteria in guts of animals from polluted than from unpolluted environment. The majority of Hg^r strains contained merA genes. Sequencing of 16S rRNA clones from egested guts of animals from Hg-polluted environments showed elevated number of bacteria from Pseudomonas, Listeria and Bacteroidetes relatives groups. In animals from pristine environment number of bacteria from Achromobacter relatives, Alcaligenes, Paracoccus, Ochrobactrum relatives, Rhizobium/Agrobacterium, Bacillus and Microbacterium groups were elevated. Such bacterial community shifts in guts of animals from Hg-polluted environment could significantly contribute to P. scaber Hg tolerance.     

An approach to sustainable development: the case of Cuba

This paper analyzes the Cuban model of sustainable development and explains the causes that made Cuba the only country that meets the conditions of sustainability according to the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). The Human Development Index has three main components: quality of life (health indicator measured as life expectancy at birth), knowledge (education indicator measured as adult literacy) and the standard of life (economic indicator measured by the Gross Domestic Income). This paper analyses the aspects of the educational and health system of Cuba and also of its energy policies that explain the excellent scores of the Human Development Index. Cuba shows a Human Development Index of 0.8 with an Ecological Footprint of 1.8?gha. This is achieved with a Gross Domestic Income lower than other countries with similar Human Development Index. The Ecological Footprint of Cuba is mainly determined by the CO₂ and the agricultural land footprint. The paper shows how the economic transition, after the economic crisis of the early 1990s, was realized without significantly increasing the Ecological Footprint.