Assessment of environmental burdens for municipal solid waste management options

摘要

This paper aimed to conduct an assessment of environmental burdens for recycling, incineration and landfilling, which are the municipal solid waste management options in Pyongyang, in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The negative impacts of these different waste management options on the environment were assessed in life-cycle perspectives. The results show that the recycling option can be considered environmentally friendly in terms of waste management options. It can be shown to avoid emissions in all of the impact categories except terrestrial ecotoxicity. It is also shown to be favourable for the environment when compared with production. Recycling was shown to avoid more emissions in some impact categories - namely marine aquatic ecotoxicity, global warming and abiotic depletion (fossil fuels) - than in others. Next, the incineration option can be considered favourable: it presents less environmental burdens than landfilling, except in the human and terrestrial ecotoxicity and acidification impact categories. Finally, the landfilling option can be considered unfavourable: it presents more environmental burdens than the other options because solid waste is simply landf illed.