Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology pp 1–23Cite as

WTE, Life Cycle Assessment Comparison to Landfilling

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:

Glossary

APCS:

Air pollution control system

ASCC:

Alaska Systems Coordinating Council

CAA:

Clean Air Act

EGU:

Electric generating unit

FRCC:

Florida Reliability Coordinating Council

HICC:

Hawaiian Islands Coordinating Council

ICE:

Internal combustion engine

LCA:

Life cycle assessment

LCI:

Life cycle inventory

LFG:

Landfill gas

LFGTE:

Landfill gas to energy

MRO:

Midwest Reliability Organization

MSW:

Municipal solid waste

NERC:

North American Energy Reliability Council

NPCC:

Northeast Power Coordinating Council

RFC:

Reliability First Corporation

SERC:

SERC Reliability Corporation

SPP:

Southwest Power Pool

TRE:

Texas Regional Entity

US EPA:

United States Environmental Protection Agency

WECC:

Western Electricity Coordinating Council

WTE:

Waste-to-energy

Definition of the Subject

This entry provides a detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) of combustion vs. landfilling of post-recycling municipal solid waste (MSW), that means the MSW with no value in the market or recovery potential. The LCA...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  1. Christensen TH, Bhander G, Lindvall H, Larsen AW, Fruergaard T, Damgaard A, Manfredi S, Boldrin A, Riber C, Hauschild M (2007) Experience with the use of LCA-modelling (EASEWASTE) in waste management. Waste Manag Res 25(3):257–262

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Eriksson O, Reich MC, Frostell B, Bjorklund A, Assefa G, Sundqvist JO, Granath J, Baky A, Thyselius L (2005) Municipal solid waste management from a systems perspective. J Clean Prod 13(3):241–252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Gentil EC, Damgaard A, Hauschild M, Finnveden G, Eriksson O, Thorneloe S, Kaplan PO, Barlaz M, Muller O, Matsui Y, Ii R, Christensen TH (2010) Models for waste life cycle assessment: review of technical assumptions. Waste Manag 30(12):2636–2648

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Harrison KW, Dumas RD, Solano E, Barlaz MA, Brill ED, Ranjithan SR (2001) Decision support tool for life-cycle-based solid waste management. J Comput Civ Eng 15(1):44–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Kaplan PO, Ranjithan SR, Barlaz MA (2009) Use of life-cycle analysis to support solid waste management planning for Delaware. Environ Sci Technol 43(5):1264–1270

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kirkeby JT, Birgisdottir H, Hansen TL, Christensen TH, Bhander GS, Hauschild M (2006) Environmental assessment of solid waste systems and technologies: EASEWASTE. Waste Manag Res 24(1):3–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Thorneloe SA, Weitz K, Jambeck J (2007) Application of the US decision support tool for materials and waste management. Waste Manag 27(8):1006–1020

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Wanichpongpan W, Gheewala SH (2007) Life cycle assessment as a decision support tool for landfill gas-to energy projects. J Clean Prod 15(18):1819–1826

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. White PR, Franke M, Hindle P (1995) Integrated solid waste management: a lifecycle inventory. Chapman & Hall, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  10. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2010) Municipal solid waste in the United States: 2009 Facts and Figures. EPA/530/R10/012. Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  11. European Commission (2005) Waste generated and treated in Europe: Data 1995–2003. Luxembourg. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-69-05-755/EN/KS-69-05-755-EN.PDF

  12. Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources and Emission Guidelines for Existing Sources: large municipal waste combustors; final rule (2006). Fed Regist 71(90)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Energy Recovery Council (2010) The 2010 ERC directory of waste-to-energy plants http://www.wte.org/userfiles/file/ERC_2010_Directory.pdf. Accessed 12 July 2011

  14. RTI International. Municipal solid waste decision support tool. https://mswdst.rti.org. Accessed 12 July 2011

  15. Harrison KW, Dumas RD, Barlaz MA, Nishtala SR (2000) A life-cycle inventory model of municipal solid waste combustion. J Air Waste Manage Assoc 50(6):993–1003

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. IPCC (2007) Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change: the physical science basis. Accessed 18 July 2011

    Google Scholar 

  17. Camobreco V, Ham R, Barlaz M, Repa E, Felker M, Rousseau C, Rathle J (1999) Life cycle inventory of a modern municipal solid waste landfill. Waste Manag Res 17(6):394–408

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Environment Agency (2000) Life cycle inventory development for waste management operations: incineration. R&D Project Record P1/392/6, Bristol

    Google Scholar 

  19. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2006) Municipal solid waste in the United States: 2005 facts and figures. EPA/530/R06/011. Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  20. Tchobanoglous G, Vigil SA, Theisen H (1993) Integrated solid waste management, International edn. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  21. Oshins C, Block D (2000) Feedstock composition at composting sites. Biocycle 41:31–34

    Google Scholar 

  22. Realff MJ, Lemieux P, Lucero S, Mulholland J, Smith PB (2005) Characterization of transient puff emissions from the burning of carpet waste charges in a rotary kiln combustor. In: Cement industry technical conference, 15–20 May 2005. pp 212–228

    Google Scholar 

  23. Nelson B (2002) Performance/test data for large Municipal Waste Combustors (MWCs) at MACT compliance (year 2000 data). Memo for Walt Stevenson of U.S. EPA, Durham

    Google Scholar 

  24. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2010) The Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGRID) 2010. http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/egrid/index.html. Accessed 13 July 2011

  25. NREL (2011) Bituminous coal, at mine, data years 1999–2002. U.S. LCI database. www.nrel.gov/lci. Accessed 24 June 2011

  26. NREL (2011) Natural gas, at extraction site, data years 1997–2001. U.S. LCI database. www.nrel.gov/lci. Accessed 24 June 2011)

  27. NREL (2011) Fuel grade uranium, at regional storage, data years 1981–2002. U.S. LCI database. www.nrel.gov/lci. Accessed 24 June 2011

  28. NREL (2011) Crude oil, at production site, data years 1997–2001. U.S. LCI database. www.nrel.gov/lci. Accessed 24 June 2011

  29. Sich BA, Barlaz MA (2000) Calculation of the cost and life cycle inventory for waste disposal in traditional, bioreactor and ash landfills. https://mswdst.rti.org/docs/Landfill_Model_OCR.pdf. Accessed 15 July 2011

  30. Eleazer WE, Odle WS, Wang YS, Barlaz MA (1997) Biodegradability of municipal solid waste components in laboratory-scale landfills. Environ Sci Technol 31(3):911–917

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Background information document for updating AP42 section 2.4 municipal solid waste landfills. EPA/600/R-08-116 Washington, DC. http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/ap42/ch02/draft/db02s04.pdf

  32. Kaplan PO, DeCarolis J, Thorneloe S (2009) Is it better to burn or bury waste for clean electricity generation? Environ Sci Technol 43(6):1711–1717

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Staley BF, Barlaz MA (2009) Composition of municipal solid waste in the U.S. and implications for carbon sequestration and methane yield. J Environ Eng 135(10):901–909

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. U.S. Department of Energy (2006) Electric power annual 2005. DOE/EIA-0348(2005). Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  35. Van Haaren R, Themelis N, Goldstein N (2010) The state of garbage in America (2010 national survey). BioCycle, pp. 16–23

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 109 T.W. Alexander Dr., Mail Drop: E305-02, Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC, 27711, USA

    P. Ozge Kaplan

  2. Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Joseph F. Decarolis & Morton A. Barlaz

Authors
  1. P. Ozge Kaplan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Joseph F. Decarolis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Morton A. Barlaz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to P. Ozge Kaplan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ramtech Ltd., Larkspur, California, USA

    Robert A. Meyers

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Kaplan, P.O., Decarolis, J.F., Barlaz, M.A. (2017). WTE, Life Cycle Assessment Comparison to Landfilling. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_409-3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_409-3

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-2493-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-2493-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation