| Title |
Municipal solid waste: Review of best practices in application of life cycle assessment and sustainable management techniques |
| ID_Doc |
13414 |
| Authors |
Iqbal, A; Liu, XM; Chen, GH |
| Title |
Municipal solid waste: Review of best practices in application of life cycle assessment and sustainable management techniques |
| Year |
2020 |
| Published |
|
| DOI |
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138622 |
| Abstract |
Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is a globally recognized environmental issue. The concepts of sustainability and the circular economy have progressedMSWmanagement systemfrombasic disposal to recycling and resource recovery. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the technique that has been widely used to analyse MSW management system. However, the reliability of results is deeply influenced by the methodology, quality of data, and robustness of the analyses. This raises two questions: how to improve the quality of LCA work, and howto select the appropriate MSW management strategy for practice? To answer these questions, we have conducted a critical review of 79 scientific studies from 36 low-to-high income countries. The review examines the scientific community's application of LCA to MSW management and identifies the best practices to follow for a good-quality study. Then after categorically assessing the results of the studies, a ranking of appropriate MSW management scenarios ismade. Results reveal that the objective of an LCA study is subjective but a decisive factor that defines the procedure of subsequent steps. Differences are foundamong the practitioners, especially in study boundaries, selection of impact categories, choice of input data and analysismethods. Sensitivity analysis is critical for producing reliable results but was not performed in around 38% of the studies. Our analysis also reveals that the integration of recycling, treatment and disposal technologies is themost appropriate strategy. The choice of technologies and their performance, however, depends on the technological and socio-economic background of the studied region. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
| Author Keywords |
Municipal solid waste; Life cycle assessment; Critical review; Integrated waste management system |
| Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
| Document Type |
Other |
| Open Access |
Open Access |
| Source |
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) |
| EID |
WOS:000537441700001 |
| WoS Category |
Environmental Sciences |
| Research Area |
Environmental Sciences & Ecology |
| PDF |
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