Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
Waste Manag Res. 2019 Jan;37(1_suppl):14-26. doi: 10.1177/0734242X18815951.
Solid waste management has witnessed much progress in recent years with considerable efforts targeting the reduction of associated impacts and carbon emissions. Such efforts remain relatively limited in developing economies due to inefficient management practices. In this study, a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach is adopted to identify integrated systems with minimal impacts and reduced emissions in a developing context coupled with an economic valuation and sensitivity analysis to assess the effect of varying influencing parameters individually. The results showed that the highest impact arises from landfilling with minimal material recovery for recycling and composting, while incineration coupled with energy recovery contributed to the least equivalent emissions (-111% with respect to baseline scenario) at a varying cost of -70% to +93% depending on the selected technology and the value of carbon credit. Optimizing material recycling, composting and landfilling with energy recovery contributed to 98% savings in emissions (with respect to baseline scenario) and remained economically attractive irrespective of the carbon credit exchange rate of 0.5-50 US$/MTCOE. The sensitivity analysis showed that an improvement in landfill gas collection efficiency (up to 60%) can contribute to major savings in emissions (58%). The application of the LCA-based approach supports the development of integrated viable plans while quantifying advantages and disadvantages towards decision-making and policy-planning.
近年来，固体废物管理取得了很大进展，人们付出了相当大的努力来减少相关影响和碳排放。由于管理实践效率低下，这种努力在发展中经济体中仍然相对有限。在本研究中，采用生命周期评估（LCA）方法来确定在发展中国家具有最小影响和减排的综合系统，同时进行经济评估和敏感性分析，以单独评估各种影响参数的影响。结果表明，土地填埋造成的影响最大，可回收材料的回收和堆肥最小，而焚烧结合能源回收则导致排放的等效排放量最少（相对于基线情景减少了 111%），成本在-70%到+93%之间变化，具体取决于所选技术和碳信用额的价值。优化材料回收、堆肥和具有能源回收的垃圾填埋场有助于将排放量减少 98%（相对于基线情景），并且无论碳信用额的汇率为 0.5-50 美元/MTCOE 如何，都具有经济吸引力。敏感性分析表明，提高垃圾填埋气收集效率（高达 60%）可以大大减少排放量（58%）。基于 LCA 的方法的应用支持综合可行计划的制定，同时量化了决策和政策规划的优缺点。
