Life Cycle Assessment of Black and Greywater Treatment Solutions for Remote and Sensitive Areas

Sensitive and remote areas have come under pressure from growing populations tourism, often resulting in improper wastewater management. Efficiency, durability, the use of renewable construction materials, minimization environmental impacts must be conformed to a sustainable paradigm. A life cycle assessment (LCA) was applied compare three different decentralized treatment systems built at tourist facilities: source separation sanitation system with hybrid constructed wetland (S1), sequential batch reactor (SBR) (S2), solar-powered composting toilet (S3). Benchmarking showed that S1 preferred over S2. The differences were up factor two, except for eutrophication, which significantly higher S2 (10×). S3 had lowest impact, but treated only blackwater fraction, i.e., urine, faeces, paper, excluded greywater treatment, handwashing and/or kitchen wastewater. scenario analysis performance could improved by installing solar panels, this would increase impact on abiotic depletion elements 83% LCA indicated advantages, disadvantages, flexibility, potential design improvements meet sustainability market demands diversity.