European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Directorate S: Scientific Development Programmes Unit, Edificio Expo, Calle Inca Garcilaso 3, 41092 Seville, Spain.
European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Directorate B: Circular Economy and Sustainable Industry Unit, Edificio Expo, Calle Inca Garcilaso 3, 41092 Seville, Spain.
Waste Manag. 2024 Feb 15;174:605-617. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2023.12.029. Epub 2023 Dec 25.
The Monitoring Framework proposed in the EU27 New Circular Economy Action Plan comprises two mass-based indicators, namely overall recycling rate and recycling rate for specific waste streams. Yet, to monitor and assess the impacts of circular economy, indicators cannot be limited to mass-based indicators; we argue assessments should also include environmental and economic effects. Towards this end, these impacts can be quantified by an advanced model based on life cycle thinking, entailing the use of life cycle assessment and costing (LCA/LCC). Calculating these effects for municipal waste management is challenging due to gaps in available data for estimating generated waste. We propose a methodology to estimate more finely the amounts of waste generated in the Member States, complemented with LCA/LCC. The results highlight that important inconsistencies in municipal waste data reporting exist and that recycling rates calculated from these are lower than hitherto estimated. The impacts quantification shows great performance variation across EU27, with C-footprint ranging from -490 to 539 kg CO-eq. t. Potentials for improvement are substantial and can bring up to 103 Mt CO-eq. additional annual saving, reducing costs (calculated as Full Environmental LCC) of waste management by 8.4 billion EUR and bringing 206,100 new jobs in the sector. The approach presented highlights the rationale for improved data management on waste statistics and the potential for harmonised models. It also paves the way for more sophisticated impact analyses relevant for policymaking, by bringing a richer perspective to the environmental and economic impacts of waste management on top of tracking generated, collected and recycled waste flows.
欧盟 27 国新循环经济行动计划提出的监测框架包含两个基于质量的指标，即总体回收率和特定废物流的回收率。然而，为了监测和评估循环经济的影响，指标不能仅限于基于质量的指标；我们认为评估还应包括环境和经济影响。为此，可以通过基于生命周期思维的先进模型来量化这些影响，这需要使用生命周期评估和成本核算（LCA/LCC）。由于估算产生废物的可用数据存在差距，因此计算城市废物管理的这些影响具有挑战性。我们提出了一种方法来更精细地估计成员国产生的废物量，并辅以 LCA/LCC。结果表明，城市废物数据报告存在重要的不一致性，并且从这些报告中计算出的回收率低于迄今为止的估计值。影响量化显示欧盟 27 国之间存在巨大的绩效差异，C 足迹范围从-490 到 539 kg CO-eq. t.。改进的潜力很大，可以带来高达 1.03 亿吨的额外年度节约，使废物管理的总成本（按全环境 LCC 计算）降低 84 亿欧元，并在该部门创造 206100 个新工作岗位。所提出的方法强调了改进废物统计数据管理和协调模型的潜力。它还通过在跟踪产生、收集和回收废物流的基础上，为政策制定提供更复杂的影响分析铺平了道路，为废物管理的环境和经济影响带来了更丰富的视角。
