MIT 2 813 - Lifecycle assessment and economic evaluation of recycling

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resources, conservation ELSEVIER Resources. Conservation and Recycling I7 (1996) 75-96 andrecycling Lifecycle assessment and economic evaluation of recycling: a case study Amelia L. Craighilla’b*, Jane C. Powellavb “CSERGE. University of East Anglia. Norwich, NR4 7TS, UK buniversity College London, Gower Street, Lma’on WCIE tjBT, UK Received 2 October 1995; revision received 5 February 1996; accepted IO February 1996 Abstract Recycling is widely assumed to be environmentally beneficial, although the collection, sort- ing and processing of materials into new products also entails significant environmental im- pacts. This study compares the relative environmental impacts of a recycling system (incorporating the kerbside collection of recyclable materials and their subsequent use by manufacturers), with a waste disposal system (in which the waste is disposed to landfill and primary raw materials are used in manufacture), using the technique of lifecycle assessment. The methodology is then extended to incorporate an economic evaluation of the environmen- tal impacts. This combination of lifecycle assessment and economic evaluation can be termed ‘Lifecycle Evaluation’. Lifecycle assessment quantifies and evaluates the environmental im- pacts of a product from the acquisition of raw materials, through manufacture and use, to final disposal. Lifecycle assessment can also provide a framework for the analysis of en- vironmental impacts from systems such as transport, or waste management, as demonstrated in this paper. The results, for a case study of Milton Keynes in Central England, show that the recycling system generally performs better than the waste disposal system in terms of con- tribution to global warming, acidification effects and nutritication of surface water. An alter- native method of analysis is then used, in which an economic valuation of the environmental impacts is carried out. This produces net benefits for recycling, per tonne of material, of El769 for aluminium. f238 for steel, f226 for paper and f 188 for glass, and net costs of f2.57 for high density polyethylene (HDPE), f4.10 for poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) and f7.28 for poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET). It is concluded that lifecycle evaluation, the combination of lifecycle assessment and economic valuation, can be applied to a variety of waste management issues such as the appraisal of alternative methods of collection for recycling or an examina- tion of the UK waste management hierarchy. This technique allows impacts to be expressed ??Corresponding author. Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment, University of East Anglia. Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. Tel.: +44 1603 593176; fax: +44 1603 250588. 092l-3449/96/sl5.00 0 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved PII 092l-3449(96)01105-676 A.L. Craighill. J.C. Powell/ Resources, Conservation and Recycling 17 (19%) 75-96 in homogenous units, and the inclusion of social and environmental impacts that would not normally be addressed within a lifecycle assessment. The approach would also facilitate the evaluation of environmental and social effects at a local level, which are particularly crucial to the success of community recycling schemes. Lifecycle evaluation could provide a powerful tool to aid the development of sustainable waste management and recycling policy. Keywords: Lifecycle assessment; Recycling; Economic valuation; Waste management 1. Introduction Recycling is widely regarded to be environmentally beneficial and conducive to sustainable economic development. It mitigates resource scarcity, decreases demand for landfill space and generally involves savings in energy consumption. Never- theless, the collection of materials for recycling has its own environmental impacts, notably the energy used in collection and sorting, and impacts arising from the use of the recovered materials in new products. Despite these impacts the UK Government has expressed support for recycling in two recent publications: the Government’s White Paper on the Environment [l] which proposed a target of recycling 50% of the recyclable component of municipal solid waste by the year 2000; and the Draft Waste Strategy for England and Wales [2] which represents the Government’s policy for achieving sustainable waste man- agement. The latter document accepts and supports the EU waste hierarchy which ranks recycling high on the list of methods of waste treatment and disposal. However the waste hierarchy does not appear to reflect the actual environmental impacts of waste management techniques, and the ranking appears to be based on intuition rather than on a scientific assessment. An attempt should be made to assess the environmental and social costs and benefits of each waste management option, regardless of their assumed place in the hierarchy [3]. In order to assess the costs and benefits it is necessary to examine both the re- sources and materials used in each system as well as the emissions generated. One methodology for undertaking this evaluation is lifecycle assessment (LCA), which quantities the environmental impacts of a product or material over its entire life- cycle [4]. This includes the extraction of raw materials, processing of materials, manufacture of the product, distribution, use and reuse or recycling, and final dis- posal. The technique can be used to improve the environmental impacts of a single product or to compare the relative impacts of different products. Alternatively, LCA can be used to compare different systems such as recycling and waste disposal. One of the main problem areas in LCA is the aggregation of the resulting environmental impacts which are usually in non-comparable units. Various methodologies have been developed [5] including economic valuation which is used in this paper. Economic


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