Greenhouse Gases Life Cycle Assessment for Evaluation of Composting as Selected Management Technique of Food and Garden Waste Generated at an Indian Metropolitan Transport Hub

摘要

The dumping and subsequent decomposition of organic wastes in unmanaged landfills, a common practice in developing countries like India, leads to emission of greenhouse gases and contamination of soil and groundwater. To improve environmental footprint, the operator of the transport hub under consideration will be installing an Organic Waste Converter for composting the food and garden waste generated at its premises. In this paper, Version Ⅱ of the estimation tool for Greenhouse Gas emissions developed by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies was used to quantify emissions of the waste stream components based on a life cycle inventory approach. The baseline of dumping was compared against composting with three different types of organic waste converters and a selected anaerobic digester. Both composting and anaerobic digestion offered reduction in greenhouse gases emissions. Thus diverting food and garden waste from dumping will decrease the carbon footprint of the transport hub and will not contribute to the health effects suffered by people residing in the vicinity of the dumping ground. The organic waste converter generating the most amount of compost was found to have the most reduction in emissions, followed by anaerobic digestion. However, the preferred choice of converter is dependent on an economic assessment to fulfil the sustainability criteria as economy, environment and society serve as mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainability.