Influence of morphological composition of waste to environmental performance of municipal solid waste management techologies

Abstract

Inadequate waste management is one of greatest environmental problem of the modern world. Waste generation is directly correlated with national economy, but the achieved level of waste management system is highly dependent on the level of economic development. In addition, economic development significantly affects the morphological composition of solid waste. In the last few decades, particularly in high-income countries, great attention is paid and significant funds are invested in order to improve waste management practices. Determination of the composition and quantity of generated municipal waste is an essential part of any modern waste management system and is the basis for making strategic decisions. In this paper, based on the Life cycle assessment (LCA) method, the impact of morphological composition of waste to the environmental performance of four solid waste management scenarios in the city of Kragujevac was analysed. Through the application of the software package EASETECH, the life cycle inventory analysis (LCIA) was realized and the levels of eight standard categories of influence were determined. For each of these scenarios the comparative simulations for three typical composition of waste were made. The impact of the share of organic components in the overall composition of the waste was especially examined and discussed.