Emission of toxic components as a factor of the best practice options for waste management: Application of LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)

Abstract

Health and safety have been the major concerns in waste management. Waste must be managed in a way that minimizes risk to human health. Environmental concerns over the management and disposal of waste can be divided into two major areas: conservation of resources and pollution of the environment. Integrated Waste Management (IWM) systems combine waste streams, waste collection, treatment and disposal methods, with the objective of achieving environmental benefits, economic optimization and societal acceptability. Integrated waste management using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) attempts to offer the most benign options for waste management. LCA is a compilation and evaluation of the inputs, the outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. It can be successfully applied to municipal solid waste management systems to identify the overall environmental burdens and to assess the potential environmental impacts. This paper deals with the LCA of the two waste management options for final disposal of municipal waste, landfilling (landfill without landfill gas collection or leachate collection) and sanitary landfilling (landfill with landfill gas collection and recovery and leachate collection and treatments) analyzed for town Sombor, Serbia. The research is conducted with the use of the Software Package IWM-2. The indicators which are used in the assessment are air and water emissions of toxic compounds. The results indicated that waste disposal practice has a significant effect on the emission of the toxic components and environmental burdens. Sanitary landfilling of municipal solid waste significantly reduces toxic emission and negative influence on the environment.

Keywords

• solid waste
• waste management
• life cycle assessment
• toxic emission