Environmental Impact of Waste Treatment Activities
What is the impact of waste treatment activities?
Modern sewage treatment is complex. The system is not only about collecting and hoarding, but also where the waste comes from and what tools are used.
The Life cycle Assessment method requires collecting data from upstream to downstream. Both the waste data generated from various activities, as well as the waste that comes out of the waste processing activities. LCA helps find which waste is important and which areas are most affected.
Christensen and friends have conducted research using LCA in waste management. The study measures the environmental impact of waste treatment which is currently widely applied.
Then he improvised the waste treatment technology based on the LCA data. Then compare the environmental impact of current technology and improvised technology.
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| Measuring the environmental impact of waste treatment activities |
Waste Treatment today
1. Garbage that is successfully secured
In European countries, the waste that has been successfully secured comes from paper recycling, metal recycling, energy recovery, and hoarding.
In 2009, Zhao et al carried out modeling of waste processing in the city of Hangzhou, namely distinguishing between waste disposed of into the environment and waste that was successfully secured.
2. Emissions due to waste processing
In Europe, waste-to-energy processing can provide benefits for recovering electrical energy from burning plastics and textiles. However, the combustion process also has an impact in the form of global warming potential.
The main environmental burden is the final exhaust gas emissions and also the material recovery facility. The waste that has been secured comes from recycling paper, metal and energy from incinerators
Waste treatment innovation
Life Cycle Assessment allows us to find out the vital points that cause environmental impacts. With simulations based on field data, literature data, and specific parameters, LCA makes it possible to estimate the best innovation.
The application of this simulation has broad implications in various fields. Therefore, cooperation between the government and companies is needed in waste processing.
Each region has different conditions, both in terms of waste generated, climate, technology, distance traveled to the supply chain.
In Siberia, the greatest environmental burden comes from the landfill system. The technology used is also considered old technology. Plus the mileage for recycling is quite far more than 1000 km
Starostina et al. (2018) simulated a waste treatment scenario in Siberia. One of the parameters measured is Climate Change (CC). The biggest cause comes from the landfill process. the best solution offered is to use incineration technology to convert waste to energy.
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