Assessing the Transition of Municipal Solid Waste Management Using Combined Material Flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment

Dan Wang, Jun He, Yu Ting Tang

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
153 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Faced with the challenges to deal with increasingly growing and ever diversified municipal solid waste (MSW), a series of waste directives have been published by European Commission to divert MSW from landfills to more sustainable management options. The presented study assessed the transition of MSW management in Nottingham, UK, since the enforcement of the EU Landfill Directive using a tool of combined materials flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment (LCA). The results show that the MSW management system in Nottingham changed from a relatively simple landfill and energy from waste (EfW) mode to a complex, multi-technology mode. Improvements in waste reduction, material recycling, energy recovery, and landfill prevention have been made. As a positive result, the global warming potential (GWP) of the MSW management system reduced from 1076.0 kg CO2-eq./t of MSW in 2001/02 to 211.3 kg CO2-eq./t of MSW in 2016/17. Based on the results of MFA and LCA, recommendations on separating food waste and textile at source and updating treatment technologies are made for future improvement.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2020 International Conference on Resource Sustainability
Subtitle of host publicationSustainable Urbanisation in the BRI Era (icRS Urbanisation 2020) -
EditorsFaith Ka Chan, Hing Kai Chan, Tiantian Zhang, Ming Xu
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages77-92
Number of pages16
ISBN (Print)9789811596049
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
EventInternational Conference on Resource Sustainability - Sustainable Urbanisation in the BRI Era, icRS Urbanisation 2020 - Ningbo, China
Duration: 13 Dec 202015 Dec 2020

Publication series

NameEnvironmental Science and Engineering
ISSN (Print)1863-5520
ISSN (Electronic)1863-5539

Conference

ConferenceInternational Conference on Resource Sustainability - Sustainable Urbanisation in the BRI Era, icRS Urbanisation 2020
Country/TerritoryChina
CityNingbo
Period13/12/2015/12/20

Keywords

  • Future improvement
  • Global warming potential
  • Life cycle assessment
  • Material flow analysis
  • Municipal solid waste

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Information Systems

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