LCA of waste management systems-research opportunities

摘要

Waste disposal is an important part of the life cycle of a product and is associated with environmental burdens like any other life-cycle stage. Management of waste at the end of life is broadly categorised into the following five systems:rn1. Waste minimisationrn2. Recyclingrn3. Biological treatmentrn4. Thermal treatmentrn5. LandfillrnThe traditional "waste management hierarchy" has often been used in policy-making and is clearly applicable to waste prevention as the most favourable option, whereas landfill without energy recovery (waste of resources, both materials and energy) is the least favourable method. However, its utility for waste management systems in between the two extremes is debatable, while a holistic or "life-cycle" approach is appropriate for a proper comparative evaluation of various waste management systems (Barton et al. 1996; Finnveden et al. 2005; Chaya and Gheewala 2007; Del Borghi et al. 2009).