Municipal solid waste management in openLCA

Question

I want to understand whether Open LCA,  can be used in domain of municipal solid waste management. Also, are there example related to municipal solid waste management as it will create better understanding.

Comments

Hello,

I am also looking for examples about the use of OpenLCA for municipal solid waste management (supporting decision  making at the alternative technologies choice).

Cheers,
Jonatas

Answer 1

Well,

can be used in domain of municipal solid waste management

is probably somewhat broad (also a desk chair and a notebook computer can be used in the domain of waste management) - but openLCA allows to model waste flows related to life cycles, especially since version 1.7, with the flow type "waste flow". Some examples are in the openLCA 1.7 handbook, see the openLCA website.

Best wishes,

Andreas

Comments

I have similar question here. The example provided by openLCA is waste as a part of production process, where it represents by waste flow. How about modeling municipal waste with zero burden approach?

For example, one will model plastic recycling process, and the rejected part from sorting process (output) goes into incinerator. Does the initial plastic waste is represented as product flow or waste flow since the rejected part from sorting process will be represented as waste flow (I guess) and goes into incinerator. Does it make sense to model this recycling process as if it is product (initial plastic waste input is product flow) and the rejected part is waste flow? or model it as waste where the plastic waste input is waste flow and the rejected part is waste flow as well?

Answer 2

Yes, OpenLCA can be used for municipal solid waste management. It is a generic software, therefore you might find drawbacks from using such a generic platform. There are specific softwares able to perform specific analysis and model specific processes such as EASEWASTE and WRATE.

I found these review article (part I and II) very interesting about LCA applied to solid waste management:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X1300559X#b0770

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X13005710

Both generic and specific softwares can deliver the same accurate results. It depends on the assumptions and modeling you use. 

Best regard,
Jonatas Marques

Comments

Hi Jonatas Marques

My name is Ade Brian M, I am from Indonesia, currently studying in Shanghai.
I would like to discuss more with you about waste management and LCA software? do you mind if we discuss by using email? I really appreciate if you are willing to provide your email contact.

Thank you in advance for your generous support and help

Best regard,
Ade Brian M