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Dealing with waste products and flows in life cycle assessment and emergy accounting: Methodological overview and synergies

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  • Gala, Alba Bala
  • Raugei, Marco
  • Ripa, Maddalena
  • Ulgiati, Sergio

Abstract

This paper considers the different approaches taken in dealing with waste products and flows in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Emergy Accounting (EMA), from a methodological point of view, and aims to develop more standardized and synergistic procedures. LCA deals with the waste issue from the point of view of the impact of their disposal, as well as the potential benefit (‘environmental credit’) afforded by the avoided extraction and processing of additional primary resources when waste is recycled or its energy content recovered. The ‘environmental burden’ associated to the entire production and consumption chain leading to the waste item is generally not included in LCAs of waste management systems, due to the boundary being placed – consistently with the intended goal – around the actual disposal processes (including recycling alternatives and associated environmental credits). Instead, Emergy Accounting, a donor-side approach with its implicit boundary set at the biosphere level, in principle keeps track of the entire supply-chain at all times, considering even waste flows as products (or co-products), and calculating their intensity factors and assessing their role within the ecosystem's web and hierarchy. However, when the focus is limited to evaluating processes under human control, within the narrower space and time boundary of human-dominated production and consumption processes, waste products can arguably be regarded as something to be recycled or disposed of to minimize the environmental burden. When this is the case, and particularly in comparative analyses, the emergy perspective thus becomes closer to the LCA perspective and interesting methodological synergies may emerge. A clearly defined set of emergy algebra rules for waste products and flows, and specifically for recycling, was found to be still lacking in the available emergy literature. We propose here that a better and more consistent methodological solution may be arrived at by leveraging the work done in LCA.

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  • Gala, Alba Bala & Raugei, Marco & Ripa, Maddalena & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2015. "Dealing with waste products and flows in life cycle assessment and emergy accounting: Methodological overview and synergies," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 315(C), pages 69-76.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:315:y:2015:i:c:p:69-76
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.03.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Raugei, Marco & Rugani, Benedetto & Benetto, Enrico & Ingwersen, Wesley W., 2014. "Integrating emergy into LCA: Potential added value and lingering obstacles," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 271(C), pages 4-9.
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    5. Amponsah, N.Y. & Le Corre, O. & Lacarriere, B., 2011. "Recycling flows in emergy evaluation: A mathematical paradox?," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(17), pages 3071-3081.
    6. Marvuglia, Antonino & Benetto, Enrico & Rios, Gordon & Rugani, Benedetto, 2013. "SCALE: Software for CALculating Emergy based on life cycle inventories," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 248(C), pages 80-91.
    7. Brown, M. T. & Herendeen, R. A., 1996. "Embodied energy analysis and EMERGY analysis: a comparative view," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 219-235, December.
    8. Brown, Mark T. & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2010. "Updated evaluation of exergy and emergy driving the geobiosphere: A review and refinement of the emergy baseline," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 221(20), pages 2501-2508.
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    1. Liu, Gengyuan & Hao, Yan & Dong, Liang & Yang, Zhifeng & Zhang, Yan & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2017. "An emergy-LCA analysis of municipal solid waste management," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 131-143.
    2. Patterson, Murray & McDonald, Garry & Hardy, Derrylea, 2017. "Is there more in common than we think? Convergence of ecological footprinting, emergy analysis, life cycle assessment and other methods of environmental accounting," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 362(C), pages 19-36.
    3. Maione, A. & Massarotti, N. & Santagata, R. & Ulgiati, S. & Vanoli, L., 2023. "Integrated environmental accounting of a geothermal grid," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    4. Wang, Xiaolong & Li, Zhejin & Long, Pan & Yan, Lingling & Gao, Wangsheng & Chen, Yuanquan & Sui, Peng, 2017. "Sustainability evaluation of recycling in agricultural systems by emergy accounting," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 117(PB), pages 114-124.
    5. Keena, Naomi & Raugei, Marco & Aly Etman, Mohamed & Ruan, Daniel & Dyson, Anna, 2018. "Clark’s Crow: A design plugin to support emergy analysis decision making towards sustainable urban ecologies," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 367(C), pages 42-57.
    6. Santagata, R. & Ripa, M. & Ulgiati, S., 2017. "An environmental assessment of electricity production from slaughterhouse residues. Linking urban, industrial and waste management systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 186(P2), pages 175-188.
    7. Puca, Antonio & Carrano, Marco & Liu, Gengyuan & Musella, Dimitri & Ripa, Maddalena & Viglia, Silvio & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2017. "Energy and eMergy assessment of the production and operation of a personal computer," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 124-136.
    8. Oliveira, Mariana & Cocozza, Annalisa & Zucaro, Amalia & Santagata, Remo & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2021. "Circular economy in the agro-industry: Integrated environmental assessment of dairy products," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    9. Xiumei Xu & Chao Feng & Yongshan Du & Qimeng Wang & Gaige Zhang & Yicheng Huang, 2022. "Evaluating the sustainability of a tourism system based on emergy accounting and emergetic ternary diagrams: a case study of the Xinjiang Kanas tourism area," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 6731-6787, May.
    10. Qingsong Wang & Hongkun Xiao & Qiao Ma & Xueliang Yuan & Jian Zuo & Jian Zhang & Shuguang Wang & Mansen Wang, 2020. "Review of Emergy Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment: Coupling Development Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, January.
    11. Tamara Fonseca & Wagner C. Valenti & Biagio F. Giannetti & Fernando H. Gonçalves & Feni Agostinho, 2022. "Environmental Accounting of the Yellow-Tail Lambari Aquaculture: Sustainability of Rural Freshwater Pond Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, February.
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    LCA; EMA; Emergy; Waste; Guidelines;
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