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Assessing Urban Metabolism through MSW Carbon Footprint and Conceptualizing Municipal-Industrial Symbiosis—The Case of Zaragoza City, Spain

Author

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  • Antonio Valero

    (Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption, Instituto CIRCE, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain)

  • Jorge Torrubia

    (Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption, Instituto CIRCE, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain)

  • Miguel Ángel Anía

    (Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, 50003 Zaragoza, Spain)

  • Alicia Torres

    (Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption, Instituto CIRCE, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain)

Abstract

This paper proposes a holistic vision of the urban metabolism (UM), viewing the city as a subsystem within an industrial ecosystem (IE) in which municipal-industrial symbiosis is essential to achieve sustainability goals. For this purpose, the metabolism of a large Spanish city, Zaragoza, was studied by analyzing the main fractions of its MSW. A methodology based on carbon footprint (CF) was developed to analyze the environmental impact—in terms of CO 2 —of the influence of households’ behavior, the City Council’s strategies, and the main MSW fractions. Zaragoza’s IE represents a footprint of 931,250 CO 2 tons for the fractions studied, of which 438,000 CO 2 tons are due to organic fraction, 180,371 to plastics and 154,607 to paper and cardboard, which are the three most significant contributors. If households selectively separated 100% of their waste, the footprint would drop to 648,660 tons of CO 2 . Furthermore, monetary savings were quantified through the CO 2 emissions price. The proposed methodology accounts for the CF of the whole IE, not just the city. Moreover, it enables the creation of Sankey diagrams to visualize the distribution of emissions of each subsystem, highlighting the importance of cooperation between the city and its recycling industries to reduce its CF.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Valero & Jorge Torrubia & Miguel Ángel Anía & Alicia Torres, 2021. "Assessing Urban Metabolism through MSW Carbon Footprint and Conceptualizing Municipal-Industrial Symbiosis—The Case of Zaragoza City, Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-34, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:22:p:12724-:d:681223
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Georgios Banias & Maria Batsioula & Charisios Achillas & Sotiris I. Patsios & Konstantinos N. Kontogiannopoulos & Dionysis Bochtis & Nicolas Moussiopoulos, 2020. "A Life Cycle Analysis Approach for the Evaluation of Municipal Solid Waste Management Practices: The Case Study of the Region of Central Macedonia, Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-17, October.
    3. Yevgeniya Arushanyan & Anna Björklund & Ola Eriksson & Göran Finnveden & Maria Ljunggren Söderman & Jan-Olov Sundqvist & Åsa Stenmarck, 2017. "Environmental Assessment of Possible Future Waste Management Scenarios," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-27, February.
    4. Angela Neves & Radu Godina & Susana G. Azevedo & Carina Pimentel & João C.O. Matias, 2019. "The Potential of Industrial Symbiosis: Case Analysis and Main Drivers and Barriers to Its Implementation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-68, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Fan Fei & Yan Wang & Xiaoyun Jia, 2022. "Assessment of the Mechanisms of Summer Thermal Environment of Waterfront Space in China’s Cold Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-23, February.
    2. Jorge Torrubia & Alicia Valero & Antonio Valero & Anthony Lejuez, 2023. "Challenges and Opportunities for the Recovery of Critical Raw Materials from Electronic Waste: The Spanish Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-18, January.

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