Waste incineration process

Question

Hello,

I have trouble with using the flow "Waste incineration of plastics" in OpenLCA v.7 (ELCD Database). I've read the User Manual, but I cannot understand if this process should be used as an input or as an output and if the amount should be positive or negative, or if I should use the "Avoided Product" box. In my case, I try to model a production process in which plastic bags are used and then discarded; I want to incorporate the impacts of the waste treatment in my LCA.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Answer 1

Hi Eloise,

this is understandable; in the ELCD database, End of Life processes like waste treatment are all forced to have the product on the output side since this was a requirement of openLCA < 1.7. To preserve the mass balance, an input reference flow is moved to the output, with negative sign. I post an example here:

To use it, add the "waste incineration of plastic.." flow into the process that is actually creating waste to be incinerated, on the input side, and also with negative amount (so, if the process produces 5 kg of waste to be incinerated, add -5kg to the input side, "provided" by the wast incineration plant).

This approach is also used in the ecoinvent database.

Since openLCA 1.7, this is not necessary any more, and we will consider this in future databases, although the approach works of course still.

Hth,

Andreas

Comments

Thank you really much, it helps me a lot !