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Integrated Waste Management

Integrated Waste Management. Dr. Forbes McDougall. Perspective: European Commission`s “Thematic Strategy on Sustainable Use of Resources”. Long-term strategy for next 25 years Decouple economic growth from environmental damage

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Integrated Waste Management

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  1. Integrated Waste Management Dr. Forbes McDougall

  2. Perspective: European Commission`s “Thematic Strategy on Sustainable Use of Resources” • Long-term strategy for next 25 years • Decouple economic growth from environmental damage • Recognises that resource use has negative environmental impacts, these threaten health and economic prosperity • Examine life cycle of resources (cradle to grave) • Change consumption patterns

  3. Perspective: European Commission`s “Thematic Strategy on Avoidance & Recycling of Waste” • Promotes Sustainable Waste Management • Considers Life Cycle Thinking to implement Sustainable Waste Management • Accepts that there is a lack of data on waste generation and treatment in Member States • Broadens ECs view from Municipal Solid Waste towards other hazardous and high volume waste streams (e.g. construction&demolition, agriculture)

  4. Sustainability is : SUSTAINABILITY Environmentally effective Economically affordable Socially acceptable a balance between the needs of theEnvironment, the Economy and Society

  5. Sustainable Waste Management needs to be : • Environmentally effective • Economically affordable • Socially acceptable

  6. Reuse Reduce Materials Recovery Energy Recovery Landfill/ Incineration (without Energy Recovery) A waste management hierarchy A hierarchy lists waste management options in an order of “preference”

  7. The waste hierarchy has limitations • It has no measurable scientific basis • It cannot consider combinations of treatment technologies • It does not address cost issues

  8. Sustainable solid waste management systems can be engineered by: • Accepting the concept of an integrated approach to solid waste management • Using a Life Cycle Assessment tool (computer model) to optimise the integrated waste management system

  9. The concept of Integrated Waste Management • IWM takes an overall approach and manages waste in an environmentally effective and economically affordable way. • IWM involves the use of a range of different treatment options at a local level. • IWM considers the entire solid waste stream.

  10. Integrated Waste Management includes: BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT MATERIALS RECYCLING COLLECTION & SORTING THERMAL TREATMENT LANDFILL

  11. How can we plan IWM systems that are environmentally and economically sustainable? • Overall environmental burdens • (Overall economic cost) • The tool of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) makes this possible

  12. Raw Material extraction Manufacture Distribution Use Waste management Life Cycle of a product LCI BOUNDARY

  13. Life Cycle of solid waste PRODUCTS Raw Material extraction Manufacture Distribution Use Waste management LCA BOUNDARY

  14. Practical environmental optimisation PRODUCTS Raw Material extraction Manufacture LCA for Manufacturers Distribution Use Waste management LCA for Waste Managers

  15. PRODUCTS PRODUCTS Raw material sourcing Raw material sourcing Manufacture Manufacture Distribution Distribution Retail Retail USE USE IWM Waste Management Waste Management INTEGRATED WASTE MANAGEMENT SEGREGATED WASTE MANAGEMENT Environmental effectiveness

  16. A Life Cycle model for solid waste LCA originally used to compare products/packaging from “cradle to grave”. A Life Cycle model for solid waste calculates: total energy consumption emissions to air and water final solid waste (overall economic costs)

  17. Integrated waste management: a Life Cycle Assessment OUTPUTS Air Emissions Water Emissions Residual Landfill Material INPUTS Waste Energy Other Materials Money BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT MATERIALS RECYCLING COLLECTION & SORTING THERMAL TREATMENT LANDFILL Secondary Materials Compost Useful Energy PRODUCTS

  18. Life Cycle models: Results • Net energy consumption • Air emissions • Water emissions • Landfill volume (residual) • Recovered materials • Compost

  19. From Life Cycle model results to sustainability • Environmental sustainability more useful products less emissions less final inert waste less energy consumed • (Economic sustainability) less money to pay for the system

  20. Waste management strategy comparisonsusing Life Cycle model results • Use existing waste management strategy as “Baseline” • Compare the performance of different Integrated Waste Management strategies • Choose optimum Integrated Waste Management strategy based on needs of local environment, economy and population

  21. How to choose between options? • Single criterion - where there is a single over-riding concern (e.g. lack of landfill space) • Multiple criteria - where more than one issue is important (e.g. energy consumption and air emissions) - “Less is better” - where one option is lower in all categories - Impact analysis - combine categories that contribute to the same effect such as global warming

  22. IWM Conclusions • The IWM concept and LCA tools can help us move towards affordable environmental sustainability. • Using LCA is better than other arbitrary approaches. • More and higher quality data are needed, to make better decisions. • A variety of waste management systems are required to meet local needs.

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