Analysis of technical and environmental parameters for waste-to-energy and recycling:: household waste case study

This paper focuses on the treatment of household waste by waste-to-energy conversion. It assesses, in particular, both technical and environmental implications of a waste pre-sorting that may affect the treatment process. To this end, a life cycle assessment study has been undertaken. The scope of the study encompassed material recycling, incineration of household waste, treatment of flue gases, energy recovery, recycling of bottom ash, treatment of fly ash and final disposal of waste. The study showed that material recycling leads to an improvement of the working conditions with respect to the incinerator. However, material recycling leads to a decrease of the energy recovery so that it is necessary to use additional boilers to meet the initial energy demand. The related impacts tend to offset the environmental benefits derived by the waste recycling itself. The study also demonstrated that the life cycle approach is a useful tool for the study of technical and environmental aspects of an energy system. Moreover, those aspects in the process that are open to improvement have been identified. (C) 2003 Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.