Bridging the Waste Gap

1
Bridging the Waste Gap

• Reducing the environmental impacts
• of French waste management practises
• Study Results

Prague 15th April 2004
2
The three steps of the study

• 1) Tool and methodology that covers best
  practises in LCA and process modeling
• 2) Theorical analysis covering the variety of
  scenarii completed by practical experience
• 3) Outputs and results that give practical
  guidelines for operators and decision makers

3
1) Tool and methodology

• Study based on LCA methodology (ISO 14040)
• WISARD software developped by Ecobilan
• Peer review in 1999/2000
• 8 consulting groups trained
• Developing know-how
• Involvement of lADEME (French Environmental
  Agency)
• Involvment of stakeholders at national and
  regional levels (2000/2001)
• Steering committee for major orientations
• Technical committee for data and hypothesis

4
Integrated Waste Management system studied
5
Environmental impacts indicators

• Air
• Greenhouse gases emissions (CO2, CH4, N2O)
• Acidification
• Metal emissions (Cd and Hg)
• Water
• Water consumption
• Metal discharge
• Eutrophication (DCO, phosphates, nitrates)
• Soil
• Production of solid and hazardous wastes
• Other
• Energie consumption
• ressources consumption (oil, coal, uranium)

6
Communicating indicators normalising in eq.
Inhabitant
Equivalent inhabitants number of inhabitants
that would cause equivalent consumptions and
emissions to the one evaluated (based on a
national average)
7
2) Theoritical and practical analysis

• Theoritical study based on 25 scenarii cases
• Mono, Multi collection and recovery schemes
• Different recycling and recovery performances
• Different technical parameters of waste
  treatment processes (transports, energy recovery,
  biogaz)
• Practical experience with 6 local authorities
• Different sizes (40 000 to 1 200 000
  inhabitants)
• Different waste management strategies
  compared (past, present, project and optimised
  project)
• Adapting to the community concerns
• Involving decision makers

8
3) Results and practical guidelines

• Clarifying the impacts of different processes
• Assessing leverages for improvement
• Providing quantified basis for dialogue

9
Landfilling of residual wastes effect of
different measures on greenhouse gases emissions
10
Ranging improvement measures based on their
effectiveness to reduce environmental impacts

• Optimizing residual waste treatment
• Recycling packaging waste
• Composting biowaste
• Optimising logistics

(incinerator or landfill)
There is a hierarchy in the ways to reduce
efficiently the environmental impacts of
integrated waste management
11
Conclusions

• Using the results of the study
• Global approach to consider waste management
  optimization policy (e.g. energy recovery)
• Quantified environmental data to be integrated
  in local discussions and decision making
  processes
• Theoritical and practical results consistent
  (database)
• Going further
• Accompanying more local authorities in the
  process
• Developping communication at global / local
  level
• Some knowledge gaps remain (emissions in water
  and soil)
• Publication of technical guidelines for
  decision-makers (year 2004 ?)
• A  soft  version of Wisard ?
•  Zero Waste  policy in France ?