Following is a summary of a project funded by the foundation. For complete publications requiring a purchase, please download the pdf order form.

Life-Cycle Inventory Case Studies of Municipal Solid Waste Management
Ecobalance, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
August 2000

Report (while supplies last) -- Price: $10 -- Order form

Case Studies -- Price: $10  -- Order form.

Software No Longer Available

PROJECT SCOPE

This report describes the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of different municipal solid waste (MSW) management options.  The report is divided into three sections:

The first section of the report describes the methodology and modeling approaches involved with the LCI and is divided into the following subsections:

• Goal: provides background information and defines the project objectives;
• Study System Boundaries: explains the general LCI methodology regarding setting system boundaries as well as boundaries considered in the project;
• Inventory Flows Considered: outlines environmental flows considered for the LCI; and 
• Data Collection and Data Quality Goals: outlines the sources of data used as well as the data quality procedures.

The second section outlines the modeling of each of the different methods of MSW management including the following sections:

• Collection:  curbside collection and transport to the waste management facility;
• Landfill Model: the full LCI of solid waste landfilling (e.g., fuel used for waste placement, and the modeling of leachate and gas generation and treatment);
• Waste-to-Energy Model: the full LCI of waste-to-energy (e.g., emissions from combustion, and the modeling of ash management);
• MRF Modeling: energy used at the recovery facility as well as recovery rates;
• Newspaper Recycling: production of the recycled as well as of the virgin paper product;
• Glass Recycling: production of the recycled as well as of the virgin glass product; and
• HDPE Recycling: production of the recycled as well as of the virgin HDPE material.

The third section provides baseline results for the four scenarios considered in the study.  All of the results are based on the functional unit of managing one ton of MSW.

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