Environmental impact assessment of solid waste management in Beijing City, China

Journal Article · Fri Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Waste Management

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2010.11.007· OSTI ID:21550363

Yan, Zhao ^[1]; Christensen, Thomas H ^[2]; Wenjing, Lu; Huayong, Wu ^[1]

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1. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing (China)
2. Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby (Denmark)

The environmental impacts of municipal solid waste management in Beijing City were evaluated using a life-cycle-based model, EASEWASTE, to take into account waste generation, collection, transportation, treatment/disposal technologies, and savings obtained by energy and material recovery. The current system, mainly involving the use of landfills, has manifested significant adverse environmental impacts caused by methane emissions from landfills and many other emissions from transfer stations. A short-term future scenario, where some of the landfills (which soon will reach their capacity because of rising amount of waste in Beijing City) are substituted by incinerators with energy recovery, would not result in significant environmental improvement. This is primarily because of the low calorific value of mixed waste, and it is likely that the incinerators would require significant amounts of auxiliary fuels to support combustion of wet waste. As for the long-term future scenario, efficient source separation of food waste could result in significant environmental improvements, primarily because of increase in calorific value of remaining waste incinerated with energy recovery. Sensitivity analysis emphasized the importance of efficient source separation of food waste, as well as the electricity recovery in incinerators, in order to obtain an environmentally friendly waste management system in Beijing City.

• OSTI ID: 21550363
• Journal Information: Waste Management, Vol. 31, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2010.11.007; PII: S0956-053X(10)00570-2; Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; ISSN 0956-053X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
CALORIFIC VALUE
CHINA
COMBUSTION
ENERGY RECOVERY
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
FUELS
GREENHOUSE GASES
INCINERATORS
LIFE CYCLE
MATERIALS RECOVERY
METHANE
SANITARY LANDFILLS
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
SOLID WASTES
URBAN AREAS
ALKANES
ASIA
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION PROPERTIES
DOCUMENT TYPES
HYDROCARBONS
MANAGEMENT
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
PROCESSING
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTES