Research Centre for Natural Resources, Environment and Society (CERNAS) & Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra (IPC), 3045-601, Coimbra, Portugal.
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2019 Dec;26(35):35629-35647. doi: 10.1007/s11356-019-05938-w. Epub 2019 Jul 25.
The purpose of this work is to assess the environmental impacts of the collection of mixed municipal solid waste (MSW) in a selected neighbourhood of the Portuguese city of Aveiro. To this purpose, the main elements necessary for the collection process (carrier bags, dustbins, street containers and vehicles) were analysed applying the life cycle assessment methodology, making use of locally gathered data. The main impacts associated with this activity are mostly related to the use of polyethylene plastic bags to carry the waste from the household to the waste container, and to the fuel consumption of collection vehicle that picks MSW from street containers and transports it to the treatment facility. The impacts associated with the plastic bags were primarily due to their disposal in a sanitary landfill after use and secondarily to the consumption of fossil raw materials required for their production. Given the relative high impact of the plastic bags, alternative scenarios were tested: using bags entirely produced with recycled polyethylene and bags produced with bio-based plastics derived from starch (TPS) and from wastewater (PHA). PHA bio-based bags were found to perform slightly better than conventional high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bags, but HDPE bags with 100% recycled content remained as the environmentally best option. A sensitivity analysis was performed to check the influence of bag size. Regarding the fuel consumption by collection vehicles, a comparison was performed to check how site-specific conditions can influence the impact of this activity, resulting in remarkably higher consumptions when local data were used instead of reference databases.
这项工作的目的是评估在葡萄牙阿威罗市选定街区收集混合城市固体废物（MSW）的环境影响。为此，应用生命周期评估方法对收集过程的主要元素（载体袋、垃圾桶、街道容器和车辆）进行了分析，利用本地收集的数据。与该活动相关的主要影响主要与使用聚乙烯塑料袋将废物从家庭带到废物容器有关，以及与收集车辆的燃料消耗有关，该车辆从街道容器中收集 MSW 并将其运输到处理设施。塑料袋的影响主要是由于使用后将其处置在卫生填埋场，其次是由于生产所需的化石原材料的消耗。鉴于塑料袋的相对高影响，测试了替代方案：使用完全由回收聚乙烯制成的袋子和由淀粉（TPS）和废水（PHA）制成的生物基塑料制成的袋子。发现生物基 PHA 袋的性能略优于传统高密度聚乙烯（HDPE）袋，但 100%回收含量的 HDPE 袋仍然是最佳的环保选择。进行了敏感性分析以检查袋子尺寸的影响。关于收集车辆的燃料消耗，进行了比较以检查特定地点的条件如何影响该活动的影响，当使用本地数据而不是参考数据库时，消耗显著增加。
