Life Cycle Analysis

A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE OF MUNICIPAL WASTE TO ENERGY VIA INCINERATION TECHNIQUE USING LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT PERSPECTIVE.

1.0 INTRODUCTION Increased recoveries of energy from waste incineration as a diversion from landfills is a now key technique to reducing the environmental impacts of the worlds’ ever increasing waste volumes and promoting sustainability (cewep, 2012). Sustainability requires methods and tools to measure and compare environmental impacts of human activities such as waste disposal (Rebitzer et al, 2004). One of such tools is the Life Cycle Assessment which compiles all inputs and outputs from when a product is disposed to when it becomes a useful product or an emission (Hall, 2014). It is believed that incineration with energy recovery if continuously used, would drop net greenhouse and gas emissions from municipal management considerably by 2020 (cewep, 2020). However it is still argued to what extent incineration can improve on sustainable development as compared to other treatment /disposal methods. This report is aimed at reviewing the sustainability of WtE using the life cycle assessment approach. 2.0 METHODOLOGY OF LCA IN WASTE MANAGEMENT 2.1 What is Life Cycle Assessment (L C A) Rebitzer at al, (2004) defined LCA as a methodological framework for the assessment and estimation of all environmental impacts attributable to the life cycle from raw material extraction to waste disposal of a product or service. Environmental impacts may be Ozone depletion, Acidification, Eutrophication and others. There are four components or stages of an LCA and are outlined below: Goal and Scope Defition; At this stage the purpose of the LCA is defined; the target audience and functional unit of the product or service are outlined (Agyraki, 2014). Life Cycle Inventory; is aimed at calculating the different resources required and the amount of emissions generated per functional unit (Rebitzer et al 2004). Life...