TY - JOUR
T1 - Review of LCA studies of solid waste management systems - Part II
T2 - Methodological guidance for a better practice
AU - Laurent, Alexis
AU - Clavreul, Julie
AU - Bernstad, Anna
AU - Bakas, Ioannis
AU - Niero, Monia
AU - Gentil, Emmanuel
AU - Christensen, Thomas H.
AU - Hauschild, Michael Z.
PY - 2014/3/1
Y1 - 2014/3/1
N2 - Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used in waste management to identify strategies that prevent or minimise negative impacts on ecosystems, human health or natural resources. However, the quality of the provided support to decision- and policy-makers is strongly dependent on a proper conduct of the LCA. How has LCA been applied until now? Are there any inconsistencies in the past practice? To answer these questions, we draw on a critical review of 222 published LCA studies of solid waste management systems. We analyse the past practice against the ISO standard requirements and the ILCD Handbook guidelines for each major step within the goal definition, scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation phases of the methodology. Results show that malpractices exist in several aspects of the LCA with large differences across studies. Examples are a frequent neglect of the goal definition, a frequent lack of transparency and precision in the definition of the scope of the study, e.g. an unclear delimitation of the system boundaries, a truncated impact coverage, difficulties in capturing influential local specificities such as representative waste compositions into the inventory, and a frequent lack of essential sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Many of these aspects are important for the reliability of the results. For each of them, we therefore provide detailed recommendations to practitioners of waste management LCAs.
AB - Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used in waste management to identify strategies that prevent or minimise negative impacts on ecosystems, human health or natural resources. However, the quality of the provided support to decision- and policy-makers is strongly dependent on a proper conduct of the LCA. How has LCA been applied until now? Are there any inconsistencies in the past practice? To answer these questions, we draw on a critical review of 222 published LCA studies of solid waste management systems. We analyse the past practice against the ISO standard requirements and the ILCD Handbook guidelines for each major step within the goal definition, scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation phases of the methodology. Results show that malpractices exist in several aspects of the LCA with large differences across studies. Examples are a frequent neglect of the goal definition, a frequent lack of transparency and precision in the definition of the scope of the study, e.g. an unclear delimitation of the system boundaries, a truncated impact coverage, difficulties in capturing influential local specificities such as representative waste compositions into the inventory, and a frequent lack of essential sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Many of these aspects are important for the reliability of the results. For each of them, we therefore provide detailed recommendations to practitioners of waste management LCAs.
KW - Case studies
KW - Critical review
KW - Environmental impact assessment
KW - Goal and scope definition
KW - Inventory modelling
KW - Life cycle assessment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84893758573&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.wasman.2013.12.004
DO - 10.1016/j.wasman.2013.12.004
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 24388596
AN - SCOPUS:84893758573
SN - 0956-053X
VL - 34
SP - 589
EP - 606
JO - Waste Management
JF - Waste Management
IS - 3
ER -