Life Cycle Assessment of the Management of Municipal Solid Waste: A Case Study

This study compares, from an environmental point of view, different alternative scenaria for the management of municipal solid waste generated in a city of 1.000.000 citizens. Three integrated solid waste management scenaria are developed. Each of these alternatives includes the recycling of part of the recyclable MSW at the source, the collection of MSW in bins, the gathering of MSW from bins, their transportation by trucks to the process disposal location, the mechanical separation of MSW, the main treatment and the disposal of the residues of the mechanical separation and the main process in a landfill. The main treatment method differs in each scenario. The anaerobic digestion of the biodegradable solid waste, the composting of the biodegradable solid waste and the incineration of volatile solids are accordingly examined. The purpose of this study is the selection out of the three scenaria the most environmentally friendly. To this aim, the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) method is used as a tool. According to the results the most environmentally friendly scenario is the one where anaerobic digestion and simultaneous exploitation/utilisation of the generated biogas for energy production is used as main treatment method. The scenaria that examine the anaerobic digestion without exploitation of the produced biogas and incineration as main treatment methods are the most undesirable from an environmental point of view.