LCA of the Collection, Transportation, Treatment and Disposal of Source Separated Municipal Waste: A Southern Italy Case Study

Giovanni De Feo, Carmen Ferrara, Cristina Iuliano and Alberto Grosso
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Giovanni De Feo: Department of Industrial Engineering (DIIN), University of Salerno, via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano (Sa), Italy
Carmen Ferrara: Department of Industrial Engineering (DIIN), University of Salerno, via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano (Sa), Italy
Cristina Iuliano: M.Sc. in Env. Science, Via R. Nicodemi 34, 84084 Fisciano (Sa), Italy
Alberto Grosso: Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente della Campania, Via Vicinale Santa Maria del Pianto, Centro Polifunzionale, Torre n. 1, 80143 Naples, Italy

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: This study performed a Life Cycle Assessment of the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of source-separated municipal waste (MW) in Baronissi, a town of 17,000 inhabitants in the Campania region of Italy. Baronissi is a high-performing town in a region with scarcity of MW facilities. The environmental impacts were assessed with three different methods—IPCC 2007, Ecological Footprint and ReCiPe 2008—in order to evaluate how they influence the results as well as how the global warming affects the results, since it is one of the major environmental concerns of people. The obtained results showed how the presence of facilities in the area is fundamental. Their lack means high environmental loads due to the transportation of materials for long distances, particularly for the organic fraction. The presence of a composting plant at 10 km from the municipality would result in a decrease of 65% of the impacts due to the external transport, regardless of the evaluation method. The results obtained with ReCiPe 2008 and Ecological Footprint agreed, while those obtained with IPCC 2007 were very different since global warming is strongly affected by the transport phase. IPCC 2007 does not allow to take into account the advantages obtainable with a good level of separate collection. Considering a single impact evaluation method, there is a high risk of coming to misleading conclusions.

Keywords: collection; disposal; Ecological Footprint; IPCC; LCA; municipal waste; ReCiPe; source separation; transport; treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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