05.0 Environmental Assessment Tools

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

5.1 Life Cycle Analysis

5.2 Eco Design

5.3 Mass Flow Analysis

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

5.1 Life Cycle Analysis

Analysis of Environmental,

Financial and Social Impacts

throughout the Life-cycle of

Products and Processes

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

The Concept of LCA (1)

• Products do no pollute, but their production, use and

disposal do!

• Product systems are composed of interrelated

processes

Life Cycle of Product Systems (Source: USEPA, 2006. Life Cycle Assessment: Principles and Practice, Cincinnati, Ohio report no. 45268

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

The Concept of LCA (2)

• Some products have a dominating environmental

load in production, some in use, some in disposal:

Examples:

books, furniture, art etc.

Examples:

cars, television, airco etc.

Examples:

Ni-Cd batteries, household chemicals, fireworks etc.

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

The Concept of LCA (3)

• Environmental LCA is the quantitative assessment of

environmental impacts of products or processes over

their life cycle.

 _{LCA is the analysis of the contribution of lifecycle stages, product}

parts or processes to environmental burden.

 _{LCA is often used to compare between products or design}

alternatives.

• Applications of LCA:

 _{Product improvement}

 _{Support for strategic choices}  _Benchmarking

 _{External communication}

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

The Concept of LCA (4)

• LCA is a

model

of a complex reality!

• …of an average lifecycle of a mass product

• …of the effect of all impacts that occur

• …of their interaction.

• Any model is a simplification of reality: If you

make a model, you must specify the goal and

scope describing why you want to make the

model.

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Methodology of LCA (1)

1. Goal and Scope definition

2. Inventory Analysis

3. Impact Assessment

4. Interpretation

- Product development and improvement

- Strategic planning

- Public policy making

- Marketing - Other Goal and scope definition Inventory analysis Impact assessment Interpretation Direct applications: Life cycle assessment framework

The official LCA framework according to the International Standards: ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Questions:

• What is the intended application of the LCA? • How much effort do you want to invest?

• Who are interested parties?

• What methodology will you use?

 _{Why is a goal and scope definition important?}

– guidance in data collection phase

– communication base for data providers – reference for data quality management.

– afterwards, to explain how choices have been made during the various LCA phases.

Methodology of LCA (2),

Goal and Scope

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

• Definition of functional unit, initial system boundaries and procedural aspects

 _{Functional unit:}_{comparison of products on the basis of}_equivalent

function, for example: comparison of 2 packaging systems for 1000 litres of milk by (a) 1000 disposable cartons or (b) 100 reusable bottles;

instead of comparison of 1 carton and 1 bottle.

 _{Functional unit is basis for comparison}

Methodology of LCA (3),

Goal and Scope

=

?

“Compare environmental

impacts of

packaging of 1000 litres milk in carton packages or glass

bottles”

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

• Definition of functional unit, initial system boundaries and procedural aspects

 _{System boundaries:}_{definition of processes that are included in the}

investigation, e.g. material extraction, processing and transport; energy production; disposal processes. Production of capital goods (equipment used for production and transportation) are often excluded from the

system. System boundaries are further defined during the inventory process.

 _{Procedural aspects:}_{organizational arrangements such as a critical}

review to guarantee consistency, scientific validity, transparency of the final report and how various stakeholders will be involved in the process (LCA is a participatory process)

Methodology of LCA (4),

Goal and Scope

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

• Also referred to as Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) phase • Compiling and quantifying of inputs and outputs

• Collecting of data, determination of total emissions and resource use • Detailed defining of product system and economy-environment

boundary. Only data collection for processes that are controlled by human beings (economic processes). Examples: coal mining,

electricity production, controlled dumping of solid waste etc. • Visualizing connected processes in product system

• Scaling of available technical data (e.g. from data libraries) to functional unit

• Aggregating the inputs and outputs in Inventory Table

Methodology of LCA (4),

Inventory

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Example of Product system and Inventory Table

Methodology of LCA (5),

Inventory

electricity steel plastic

production distribution use dump incineration

reuse recycling

LCI table with environmental interventions

Crude oil

from earth 40000 kg

CO2 to air 3500

SO2 to air 20 kg

NOx to air 100 kg

Cd to water 5 g

PAH to water

8 kg

Etc. …….

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Methodology of LCA (6),

Inventory

Difficulties:

• Data availability and quality

 _{Data rarely available, usually special data gathering studies needed}  Measurement procedures rarely standardized

• Geographic variations

 _{quality of raw materials/energy sources}  _{production methods}

 _{relevant environmental impacts}

• Technology

 _{Which type of electricity production?}

 _{Salt Electrolysis with Mercury or Membrane process?}  _{Oldest, average or modern Waste Incineration Plant?}

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Methodology of LCA (6),

Inventory

Difficulties:

• Allocation of environmental interventions in case of multiple output processes;

 Many processes are ‘multifunctional’ (e.g. co-production, combined waste treatment.) and interventions can be allocated to more outputs:

• Recycling and reuse

• Allocation determined by number of reuse times and fraction of materials that can be recycled at a certain quality

Electricity production

Salt electrolysis

Plastic production

Paint production Chlorine

Caustic Soda

Plastic bag use Recycling

Old plastic

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

• Also referred to as Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)

• Linkage (long) list of LCI results to environmental impacts, like climate change, acidification, eco-toxic impacts etc.

Methodology of LCA (7),

Impact assessment

Land use Land use LCI result Raw materials Land use CO2 VOS P SO2 NOx CFC Cd PAH DDT Climate change Climate change Acidification Acidification Ecotoxicity Ecotoxicity Depletion Depletion Eutrophicatio n Eutrophicatio n Humantoxicit y Humantoxicit y

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Methodology of LCA (8),

Impact assessment:

• Steps: Characterization, Classification and Normalization:

 _{Determine which LCI results contribute to which impact category, e.g. CO2 and}

CH4 to climate change

 _{Multiply environmental interventions (resources, emissions etc.) from LCI with a}

characterisation factor to get indicator results

 _{Normalize to understand the relative magnitude of the indicator results and to get}

dimensionless score (useful for comparison)_Impac

t category

Char. Fa

ctor (Gl

obal Wa

rming Po

tential)

Cat. Indicator result (kg CO2 equivalent)

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Methodology of LCA (9),

Impact assessment

Effect Intervention _Damage CO2 P SO2 NOx DDT Dust VOC Cd PAH CFC Heavy metals Greenhouse effect Acidification Pesticides Eutrophication Damage to Eco-systems Damage to human health Indicator Winter smog Summer smog Carconogenics

Ozone layer depl.

Category indicators are quantifiable representations of impact categories (ISO) and are defined according standards, such as CML-IA, Eco indicator 99, Impact 2002+ etc.)

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Methodology of LCA (9),

Impact assessment

• A ‘high’ contribution to a certain impact category (a high normalized score) does not automatically mean an ‘important’ contribution 

weighing of results is needed

• Weighing is a valuation of results and thus a normative process, depending on preferences of researcher; which environmental impact is most important?

• Procedure of LCIA according to ISO:

- Classification and characterisation are an obligatory step.

- Normalisation is an optional step.

- Weighing is only permitted for internal decision making, and not for comparison of products to the public.

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Methodology of LCA (10),

Interpretation

• “Phase of life cycle assessment in which the findings of either the inventory analysis or the impact assessment, or both, are combined consistent with the defined goal and scope in order to reach

conclusions and recommendations” (ISO)

• To interpret an LCA, you must check the goal and scope:

 _{Are the the general assumptions reasonable?}  _{Is the functional unit well chosen?}

 _{Are ISO standards applied?}

 _{Has a peer review been conducted?}

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Methodology of LCA (10),

Interpretation

• Conduct a sensitivity analysis: analyze the impact of important choices or assumptions

 _{What if other allocations are applied.}  What if other boundaries are applied.

 _{What if other impact assessment method is used}_.

• By recalculating the LCA with other assumptions, we can verify how the conclusions connect with the assumptions.

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Extending the scope of Environmental LCA (1)

• LCA is often associated with environmental impacts, but

scope can be extended to include economic and social

impacts.

• Financial LCA = Life Cycle Costing (LCC);

• Analysis of life cycle costs

• Social LCA

• Social impacts throughout life cycle of products and

processes

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Extending the scope of Environmental LCA (2)

• What are the costs and revenues incured during the

life cycle of a product or process?

• R&D

• Production • Marketing • Sales

• Etc.

• Sometimes external costs included as well (costs that

are ‘imposed’ on society or the environment):

• Monetary valuation of environmental LCI and LCIA results… but is it possible to monetise all environmental services?

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Extending the scope of Environmental LCA (3)

• Social LCA analyses social impacts, such as employment

and health:

 _{Job quality}

 _{Quality physical health}  Quality social health

 _{Earthly possessions}

• Challenging to model social life cycle impacts, because

social conditions do change more rapidly

 _{impacts from changes in employment conditions may dissipate}  _{emotions resulting from changes disappear with time}

 _{diseases get cured}

 people who are laid off may find new jobs)

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

5.2 Eco

-Design

Life Cycle Thinking within the

Design of Products and

Processes

5.2 Eco-design

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

• What is Eco-Design?

• Implications for the Design Process.

• Consequences for Composition and Amount of Solid

Waste.

• Related Concepts: Design for Environment, Sustainable

Product Design.

Contents

5.2 Eco-design

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

• Eco-design…

• incorporates environmental aspects into the familiar

design process

• is aimed at improving eco-efficiency (section 2.3) of

products and processes

• evolves directly from life cycle thinking and is a logical

application of LCA (section 5.1) results

What is Eco-Design?

5.2 Eco-design

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

• The designer considers

functionality requirements of

the product including its

environmental implications

along the life cycle.

• The ‘

Lifecycle Design

Strategies Wheel’

visualizes

the guidelines of Eco-Design.

• A ‘product profile’ is created

using LCA.

Implications for the Design Process (1)

The Lifecycle Design Strategies Wheel

5.2 Eco-design

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• The relative complex LCA procedure and the creative slightly chaotic design process are not so easy to combine:

Implications for the Design Process (2)

Problem Idea

Decision

5.2 Eco-design

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Implications for the Design Process (3)

Planning Idea generation Concept development Detailed design Availability of information on the product

Freedom to change the design

Complexity of the Design Process

5.2 Eco-design

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Implications for the Design Process (4)

Design phase Design activity LCA activity LCA information generated

Product planning

Target is defined as product/market

combination

Assessment of

strategy Strategic choices

Analysis Refinement of target _{and definition of} requirements

LCA of reference product

Design guidelines and eco-indicators

Idea generation

Creativity techniques are used to generate

new solutions

Use of design rules

and eco-indicators Pre-selection of ideas

Concept Best ideas are

selected and elaborated

Short screenings and what-if analysis

Support in concept choices

Detailed design

Best concept is detailed; prototype and

CAD drawings

Specific questions and issues

Support in detailed design choices

5.2 Eco-design

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Implications for the Design Process (5)

• Simulation of environmental impacts by LCA can provide important guidance during the design process:

 _{…In the creative phase as defined guidelines and}

pre-defined indicators

 …In the concept phase as screenings

…An LCA of a reference product should be ready before the creative phase in order to develop dedicated guidelines and indicators!

Possibilities for environmental improvement are large at the

early/conceptual phase within the design process, when there is still freedom to change the design

!

5.2 Eco-design

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Consequences for Composition and Amount of

Solid Waste (1)

• Eco-Design implies efficient resource use for production • Eco-Design implies lower use of toxic substances

• Eco-Design implies efficient material and energy use

…which decreases…:

• natural resource extractions (materials and energy) • hazardous materials within discarded products

• toxic emissions during incineration • solid waste quantities

5.2 Eco-design

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Consequences for Composition and Amount of

Solid Waste (2)

• Eco-Design improves Eco-efficiency:

Eco-efficiency =

Functional performance provided by product over life cycle

Environmental Impacts of product over life cycle

eco-efficiency

resource-efficiency

reduction haz. substances

= +

applying Eco-efficiency results in Eco-products…

5.2 Eco-design

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Consequences for Composition and Amount of

Solid Waste (3)

Consequences for solid waste:

• Reduction of natural resource extractions (materials and energy) • Reduction or elimination of hazardous materials within waste • Reduction of toxic emissions during incineration

Eco-products

Improved material and energy content

(quantity and quality) in

products

Reduced solid waste amount and

hazardousness composition

5.2 Eco-design

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Design for Environment (DfE): “

the

systematic

consideration of design performance with respect to

environmental, health, and safety objectives over the full

product and process life cycle” (

Fiksel, 1996 in Wrisberg et al. 2002

).

DfE…

• focuses on

existing

products and processes that fulfil

a specific function (function-oriented systems)

• expands the

design

scope towards environmental and

social implications of products and processes

Related Concepts: Design for Environment,

Sustainable Product Design (1)

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Sustainable Product Design: investigates possibilities for

improvement on a broader scale.

Examples:

•

Alternative

Function Fulfilment (changes the way in

which a specific function or need is fulfilled)

• System

innovation

(redesigning of product production

systems, creating ‘closed-loop’ economies etc.)

Related Concepts: Design for Environment,

Sustainable Product Design (2)

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

5.3 Material Flow Analysis

(MFA)

Analysis of Material Flows

in a Region

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Why MFA? (1)

Because products do not pollute, but materials do…

Environment: resource base

Extractions of materials Natural

Resource Depletion

Environment: waste sink

Waste Residuals (Pollution)

Waste Absorption

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Why MFA? (1)

…hence, material flows and stocks from the economy are crucial to the understanding of environmental problems

Material flows and accumulations

Quantity-Throughput

Quality-Hazard potential Throughput Hazard

potential

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Why MFA? (2)

… and eventually solutions are based on an analysis of

environmental problems in material/physical terms (Van der Voet, 1996)

Extractions of materials Natural

Resource Depletion

Environment: waste sink Pollution

Waste Absorption

Quantitatively: lower materials throughput Qualitatively: less hazardous materials

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

What is MFA? (1)

MFA is a tool for systematic research of flows and stocks of materials from ‘cradle to grave’ (LCA!) in a region:

MFA is useful for:

•Identification of sources of environmental pollution

•Identification of accumulations of hazardous substances

•Identification of potential control points,

useful for environmental management

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

What is MFA? (2)

• MFA describes the industrial ‘metabolism’ of a region: the transfer, storage and transformation of substances within an anthropogenic (=human controlled) system and the exchange of these

substances with the environment (Brunner and Rechberger 2004). • Examples:

 Sources, pathways and sinks for mercury in a watershed

 _{Nitrogen flows and stocks in the Malang area}

• Sometimes MFA is applied on systems of smaller scale; for example the flows and stocks of heavy metals in a waste incineration plant

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Systematic analysis of regional material flows and

stocks

• Systematic description of

Flows and Stocks of materials in a region where activities in the anthroposhere are taking place

• There is an exchange of

materials between and within anthropogenic (economic) and environmental

subsystems

Systematic overview of material flows in a region

Econo_my-En

vironm ent Bo

undary

em ‘wat er’

th’

Proces

ses wit_{hin sub}

system_‘air’

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Rationale of MFA: The Mass Balance Principle (1)

• Mass balance: the law of conservation of mass • Mass output = Mass input + Mass accumulation

1

3 2

Xp-q: Material Flow from process ‘p’ to process ‘q’

• X_0-1= X_1-2 + X_1-3

• X_1-2= X_2-0

• X_1-3= X_3-0

• X_0-1= X_2-0+ X_3-0

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Advantages of applying Mass Balance Principle

1. Mass balances can be applied at different system levels: • Single processes

• Complex combinations of processes at smaller and larger scales:

 Household

 _Country  _World

2. Valuable tool to calculate regional streams that are hardly measurable, like in waste residual outputs (Ayres 1989).

3. Efficient way to obtain accurate results even when some data are missing

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Framework of MFA (1)

Goal and system definition

Quantification of flows and stocks

Interpretation

Problem

1

2

3

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Framework of MFA (1)

Goal definition = selection of substance or material to be

investigated: single element (Substance Flow Analysis) or group of substances (Material Flow Analysis)

System definition = definition of system boundaries and relevant processes

a. Spatial boundary: Geographical or administrative boundary (e.g. watershed or country)

b. Temporal boundary: Flows per hour or month or year. Often 1 year because of data availabillity

c. Selection of relevant processes: Only processes that are significant to the substance(s) under investigation

1

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Framework of MFA (2)

Quantification of stocks and flows:

 Calculate mass flows of goods that enter and leave processes (measurements or applying mass balance)

 Calculate substance flows within these flows (multiplying mass flows of goods with element concentrations)

 Calculate stocks: is there any type of accumulation occuring?

Example of mass flow of goods and a substance (Cadmium) in a municipal waste incinerator

2

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Framework of MFA (3)

• Interpretation of results:

_{What is the relative contribution of processes to certain flows?} Where are hotspots and potential control points?

_{Is there a possibility of problem shifting when certain flows will}

be restricted? 3

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Framework of MFA (4)

• MFA is a cyclical process: start with provisional data and rough estimations; refine and improve system until required data quality is achieved

Systematic overview of MFA procedures

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Applications of MFA: resource management

• Analysis and planning of resources

• Identification of depletion and accumulation of

materials in society; forecasting of resource scarcities

and ‘secondary’ sources (recycling, landfills)



Example: natural resources are transformed to

‘anthropogenic’ resources; stocks in landfills

become important for future mining of

substances

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Applications of MFA; resource management

• Resource study: Copper cycle in Asia

Copper cycle in Asia The units are Gg Cu/year; Lith=Lithosphere

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Applications of MFA; environmental management

• Identification of existence, size and fate of

hazardous substances in a region

• Identification of hotspots and control points

• Identification of problem shifts

Example (hypothetical): “A Material Flow Account of a harbour

watershed shows a large flow of mercury in wastewater. Laboratories are relatively the largest contributors. In wastewater treatment plants, absorption and deposition to sludge are a major removal mechanism for mercury. When mercury flows in wastewater are restricted by

means of imposing advanced treatment technology to wastewater treatment plants in the region, then mercury outflows to landfills are likely to increase.”

substance

source

problem shift

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Applications of MFA in soil management

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5 – Environmental Assessment Tools

Applications of MFA; solid waste management

• MFA discerns between flows of ‘goods’ and ‘substances’

Important because substances cause environmental

problems, while flows of substances can only be controlled indirectly via flows of the goods that contain the substances.

“It is not the good leachate of a landfill that imposes danger to the groundwater. The danger resides in the cocktail of

hazardous substances in the leachate of the landfill.” (Brunner and Rechberger 2004)

• MFA can identify appropriate recycling options

_{Elemental composition of materials determine whether a}

material is appropriate for recycling • MFA identifies side-effects of recycling

_{Accumulation of heavy metals in soils when sewage sludge}

is used as agricultural fertilizer