Life cycle assessment as a tool for optimising the integrated waste management in Lombardia L. Rigamonti1, V. Brambilla2, R. Luglietti2, M. Giavini3 and M. Grosso2 1 Politecnico di Milano, DIIAR – Environmental section, Milan, 20133, Italy; lucia.rigamonti@polimi.it 2 Politecnico di Milano, DIIAR – Environmental section, Milan, 20133, Italy 3 ARS Ambiente Srl, Gallarate, Varese, 21013, Italy
Abstract Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been chosen by Regione Lombardia as a strategic support decision tool in the preparation of its new waste management program. The goal is to use the life cycle thinking approach to assess the current regional situation and thus to give useful strategic indications for the future waste management. The project is called GERLA: GEstione Rifiuti in Lombardia – Analisi del ciclo di vita (Waste management in Lombardia – Life cycle assessment). The first phase of the study consisted in the analysis of the current management of municipal waste in Lombardia Region (baseline scenario – reference year 2009). All the fluxes of materials (both the source-separated fractions and the residual waste) were characterised in terms of quantity, composition and destination, and the most important treatment plants were analysed in terms of their capacity, energy and materials consumption, emissions in the environment, energy and materials recovery. The baseline scenario was then evaluated by means of the LCA methodology. The critical analysis of the results has allowed the definition of four possible waste management scenarios for the year 2020, with the final goal to improve the environmental performance of the regional system. Keywords: Decision tool; Life cycle assessment; Lombardia Region, Waste management program
INTRODUCTION This paper summarises the main results obtained in the GERLA project, commissioned by CESTEC SpA for Regione Lombardia to the Environmental Section of Department IIAR of Politecnico di Milano. GERLA stays for GEstione Rifiuti in Lombardia: Analisi del ciclo di vita (Waste management in Lombardia: Life cycle assessment). Regione Lombardia is in fact drafting the new Regional Waste Management Program (RWMP) and, following a sustainability policy, has decided to consider the environmental performance as an evaluation criterion in future planning decisions. In particular, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been identified as the most suited tool to reach this aim. In the GERLA project, LCA methodology has thus been applied to analyse the environmental performance of the current regional municipal waste management system. On the basis of the interpretation of the results, four management scenarios for the year 2020 were proposed and subsequently evaluated with LCA methodology to verify and quantify the improvements associated with the various actions implemented. This has allowed to provide Regione Lombardia with useful indications for the formulation of the new RWMP.
BASELINE SCENARIO: WASTE MANAGEMENT IN LOMBARDIA IN 2009 Setting up the life cycle assessment. The first phase of the study consisted in the analysis of the current waste management in Lombardia Region (baseline scenario). The focus was on municipal waste, in particular the six packaging materials (glass, aluminium, iron, paper, plastic and wood), the organic waste (food and green waste) and the residual waste. The baseline scenario was evaluated by means of the LCA methodology, following the ISO standards 14040 and 14044.
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