C. Malvano

Technical, economic and environmental analysis of a MSW kerbside separate collection system applied to small communities

The main aim of this study was to evaluate the costs and environmental impacts induced by a fixed model of MSW kerbside separate collection system for communities up to 10,000 inhabitants, in order to evaluate the convenience for the smaller municipalities to unite and form more economically and environmentally sound systems. This topic is important not only due to the large number of small municipalities (e.g. in Italy 72% of the municipalities has less than 5000 inhabitants) but also to the fact that separate collection systems are typically designed to take into account only the technical and economic aspects, which is a practice but not acceptable in the light of the sustainable development paradigm. In economic terms, between 1000 and 4000 inhabitants, the annual per capita cost for vehicles and personnel decreased, with a maximum at approximately 180€/inhabitants/year; while, from 5000 up to 10,000 inhabitants, the annual per capita cost was practically constant and equal to about 80€/inhabitants/year. For the municipalities of less than 5000 inhabitants, from an economic point of view the aggregation is always advantageous. The environmental impacts were calculated by means of the Life Cycle Assessment tool SimaPro 7.1, while the economic-environmental convenience was evaluated by combining in a simple multicriteria analysis, the annual total per capita cost (€/inhabitants/year) and the annual total per capita environmental impact (kEco-indicator point/inhabitants/year), giving the same importance to each criteria. The analysis was performed by means of the Paired Comparison Technique using the Simple Additive Weighting method. The economic and environmental convenience of the aggregation diminishes with the size of the municipalities: for less than 4000 inhabitants, the aggregation was almost always advantageous (91.7%); while, for more than or equal to 5000 inhabitants, the aggregation was convenient only in 33.3% of the cases. On the whole, out of 45 cases examined, for the municipalities from 1000 to 9000 inhabitants, the aggregation was both economically and environmentally convenient in 60.0% of the cases.

LCA of an ice cream cup of polyethylene coated paper: how does the choice of the end-of-life affect the results?

ABSTRACT This study presents an evaluation of the environmental performance of an ice cream cup made of polyethylene (PE)/paper laminate using a life cycle assessment approach ‘from cradle to grave’. Two opposite alternative disposal scenarios, as well as their intermediate combinations, were considered: 100% incineration and 100% landfilling. The environmental impacts were calculated using the EPD 2013 evaluation method since the study was developed in an Environmental Product Declaration perspective as well as the method ReCiPe 2008 H at the endpoint level. PE/paper laminate production was the most impactful process since it provided the highest contribution to total impacts in four of six impact categories considered. Ice cream cup production was the second impactful process. The 100% incineration scenario provided negligible contribution to life cycle total impact for all impact categories; while considering the landfilling scenario, the percentage contributions to the total impact provided by the end-of-life phase increased considerably, until to be comparable to the contributions provided by the production processes of the PE/paper laminate and the ice cream cup. The obtained results highlighted that different disposal scenarios can affect significantly the conclusions of a study. At the endpoint level, incineration was more environmentally sound than landfilling for all the ReCiPe damage categories.

Comparison of the Suitability of Two LCA Procedures in Selecting the Best MSW Management System

Nowadays, the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the environmental impacts produced by every human activity is a topical field of research. In fact, all over the world a growing amount of attention is being given to the environmental issues and influences exerted by productive and management sectors. In particular, the management of waste is a crucial sector involving important aspects of our life, with it producing several environmental impacts that have to be adequately monitored and managed in a sustainable development perspective. This cgapter focuses on the study of different municipal solid waste management systems in a district of the Campania region, in Southern Italy, which is sadly known due to it is suffering from a serious solid waste emergency that has lasted over 15 years. It has been the culmination of a process of insufficient implementation of European waste legislation for which Italy has repeatedly been condemned by the European Court of Justice. In particular, the images of heaps of rubbish in the streets of Naples and other nearby cities as well as the revolt of people against the realization of landfills and incinerators have been impressively documented by the international press (De Feo and Malvano, 2009; De Feo and De Gisi, 2010). In order to manage these questionable situations, giving clear as well as affordable information to the people about the environmental impacts of waste management plants is fundamental. In this perspective, the study focused on the evaluation of the positive (induced) and negative (avoided) impacts caused on different environmental components by several municipal solid waste management systems defined on a provincial scale. This assessment was carried out by means of two different Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) procedures called WISARD and SimaPro, respectively. LCA is a general methodological framework introduced to assess all the environmental impacts relating to a product, process or activity by identifying, quantifying and evaluating the overall resources consumed as well as all the emissions and wastes released into the environment (De Feo and Malvano, 2009). In 1990, the society for environmental toxicology and chemistry (SETAC) defined the concept of LCA and developed a general methodology for the carrying out of LCA studies (Azapagic, 1999; De Feo and Malvano, 2009). The term ‘‘LCA” is used most frequently to