Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for Municipal Solid Waste Management in Iran: A Case Study URMIA Metropolis

Document Type : Original Research

Authors
R. kheyri
R. Abdi
M. Maysammi
Biosystems engineering department, Faculty of agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
10.22034/JAERT.1.4.23
Abstract
Since in recent decades the world population increased, it causes to ascend the municipal solid waste (MSW) production. Therefore, to manage this and control its damages that affect the environment, some applied techniques are needed. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the techniques used in this research for selecting and arranging one or more scenario. The presented scenarios were composting, incineration, landfilling and recycling which were chosen by considering their implementation in the case study site. Each scenario was analyzed in terms of ten environmental indicators that include abiotic depletion potential, ozone layer depletion potential, global warming potential, human toxicity potential, fresh water toxicity potential, marine toxicity potential, terrestrial toxicity potential, acidification, photochemical oxidation and eutrophication. The employed software for this analysis was Simapro. Results indicated that the landfilling scenario had the highest pollution ratio in eight environmental indicators and after that, the incineration scenario was the most polluting in two ozone layer depletion potential and global warming potential indicators. Recycling was the best scenario in point of lowest effects on global warming potential and human toxicity potential indicators. Composting was the scenario that had the lowest footprint on seven environmental indicators in comparison to other scenarios. In addition, this scenario showed the lowest environmental pollution burden in ozone layer depletion potential among all indicators. In general, according to the findings of this study, composting scenario is recognized as an appropriate method for municipal solid waste management in Urmia metropolis of Iran.

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Journal of Advanced Environmental Research and Technology
Volume 1, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
December 2023
Pages 23-33