Life cycle-based evaluation of environmental impacts and external costs of treated wastewater reuse for irrigation: A case study in southern Italy

The estimation and quantification of external environmental costs (hidden costs) are crucial to sustainability assessments of treated wastewater reuse projects. These costs, however, are rarely considered in economic analysis studies. In this work, monetized life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) were combined into a hybrid model to calculate cradle-to-farm gate external environmental costs (EEC) and internal costs (IC) of producing 1 t of plant-based product irrigated with reclaimed water in a Mediterranean context. The total cost was calculated by combining monetized LCA and LCC results. The results for the crops under consideration were 119.4 €/t for tomatoes, 344.4 €/t for table grapes, and 557 €/t for artichokes. Our findings show that there are significant hidden costs at the farm level, with EEC accounting for 57%, 23%, and 38% of the total cost of tomatoes, table grapes, and artichokes, respectively. Electricity use for water treatment and fertilization generated most of the EEC driven by the global warming, particulate matter, acidification, and fossil resource scarcity impact categories. When compared to groundwater, the higher internal costs of reclaimed water were offset by lower external costs, particularly when supported by low-energy wastewater treatment. This demonstrates that incorporating EEC into economic analyses might generate a better understanding of the profitability of treated wastewater reuse in crop production. In Italy and the Mediterranean region, research on the sustainability of water reuse in irrigation through life cycle thinking is still limited. Using a multi-metric approach, our analysis brought new insights into both economic and environmental performance – and their tradeoff relationships in wastewater reuse for irrigation of agricultural crops. In future research, it would be of interest to use different monetization methods as well as to investigate social externalities to explore their size and role in the total external costs.

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Evaluation of Agriculture Soil Quality by Treated Wastewater Reuse in Arid Regions: Case Study in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran

International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning ◽

10.2495/sdp-v5-n4-392-406 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 392-406

Author(s):

G. Badalians Gholikandi ◽

M. Khosravi

Keyword(s):

Soil Quality ◽

Arid Regions ◽

Wastewater Reuse ◽

Treated Wastewater ◽

Agriculture Soil ◽

Treated Wastewater Reuse ◽

Sistan And Baluchestan

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Environmental risk assessment of groundwater quality and treated wastewater reuse on aquifer recharge: a case study in Korba, Tunisia

Desalination and Water Treatment ◽

10.1080/19443994.2013.808587 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 52 (10-12) ◽

pp. 2032-2038 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Selma Etteieb ◽

Atsuchi Kawachi ◽

Foued Elayni ◽

Junkyu Han ◽

Jamila Tarhouni ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Groundwater Quality ◽

Environmental Risk ◽

Environmental Risk Assessment ◽

Wastewater Reuse ◽

Treated Wastewater ◽

Aquifer Recharge ◽

Treated Wastewater Reuse

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Impact of Treated Wastewater Reuse on Agriculture and Aquifer Recharge in a Coastal Area: Korba Case Study

Water Resources Management ◽

10.1007/s11269-011-9805-2 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 25 (9) ◽

pp. 2251-2265 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Foued El Ayni ◽

Semia Cherif ◽

Amel Jrad ◽

Malika Trabelsi-Ayadi

Keyword(s):

Coastal Area ◽

Wastewater Reuse ◽

Treated Wastewater ◽

Aquifer Recharge ◽

Treated Wastewater Reuse

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Life-Cycle Assessment of a Rural Terraced House: A Struggle with Sustainability of Building Renovations

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14092472 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (9) ◽

pp. 2472

Author(s):

Karel Struhala ◽

Milan Ostrý

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Energy Sources ◽

Construction Sector ◽

Building Stock ◽

Existing Building ◽

New Construction ◽

Consumption Energy

Contemporary research stresses the need to reduce mankind’s environmental impacts and achieve sustainability. One of the keys to this is the construction sector. New buildings have to comply with strict limits regarding resource consumption (energy, water use, etc.). However, they make up only a fraction of the existing building stock. Renovations of existing buildings are therefore essential for the reduction of the environmental impacts in the construction sector. This paper illustrates the situation using a case study of a rural terraced house in a village near Brno, Czech Republic. It compares the life-cycle assessment (LCA) of the original house and its proposed renovation as well as demolition followed by new construction. The LCA covers both the initial embodied environmental impacts (EEIs) and the 60-year operation of the house with several variants of energy sources. The results show that the proposed renovation would reduce overall environmental impacts (OEIs) of the house by up to 90% and the demolition and new construction by up to 93% depending on the selected energy sources. As such, the results confirm the importance of renovations and the installation of environmentally-friendly energy sources for achieving sustainability in the construction sector. They also show the desirability of the replacement of inefficient old buildings by new construction in specific cases.

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A Perspective from India on Treated Wastewater Reuse: Few Case Studies

World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2021 ◽

10.1061/9780784483466.003 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Bhaskar Tatwawadi

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Wastewater Reuse ◽

Treated Wastewater ◽

Treated Wastewater Reuse

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Examining the life-cycle environmental impacts of desalination: A case study in the State of Qatar

Desalination ◽

10.1016/j.desal.2018.11.017 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 452 ◽

pp. 238-246 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Mehzabeen Mannan ◽

Mohamed Alhaj ◽

Abdel Nasser Mabrouk ◽

Sami G. Al-Ghamdi

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

The State

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Country-level and gridded estimates of wastewater production, collection, treatment and reuse

Earth System Science Data ◽

10.5194/essd-13-237-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 237-254

Author(s):

Edward R. Jones ◽

Michelle T. H. van Vliet ◽

Manzoor Qadir ◽

Marc F. P. Bierkens

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Western Europe ◽

Wastewater Reuse ◽

Treated Wastewater ◽

Wastewater Management ◽

Online Data ◽

Untreated Wastewater ◽

Country Level ◽

Treated Wastewater Reuse ◽

Global Population

Abstract. Continually improving and affordable wastewater management provides opportunities for both pollution reduction and clean water supply augmentation, while simultaneously promoting sustainable development and supporting the transition to a circular economy. This study aims to provide the first comprehensive and consistent global outlook on the state of domestic and manufacturing wastewater production, collection, treatment and reuse. We use a data-driven approach, collating, cross-examining and standardising country-level wastewater data from online data resources. Where unavailable, data are estimated using multiple linear regression. Country-level wastewater data are subsequently downscaled and validated at 5 arcmin (∼10 km) resolution. This study estimates global wastewater production at 359.4×109 m3 yr−1, of which 63 % (225.6×109 m3 yr−1) is collected and 52 % (188.1×109 m3 yr−1) is treated. By extension, we estimate that 48 % of global wastewater production is released to the environment untreated, which is substantially lower than previous estimates of ∼80 %. An estimated 40.7×109 m3 yr−1 of treated wastewater is intentionally reused. Substantial differences in per capita wastewater production, collection and treatment are observed across different geographic regions and by level of economic development. For example, just over 16 % of the global population in high-income countries produces 41 % of global wastewater. Treated-wastewater reuse is particularly substantial in the Middle East and North Africa (15 %) and western Europe (16 %), while comprising just 5.8 % and 5.7 % of the global population, respectively. Our database serves as a reference for understanding the global wastewater status and for identifying hotspots where untreated wastewater is released to the environment, which are found particularly in South and Southeast Asia. Importantly, our results also serve as a baseline for evaluating progress towards many policy goals that are both directly and indirectly connected to wastewater management. Our spatially explicit results available at 5 arcmin resolution are well suited for supporting more detailed hydrological analyses such as water quality modelling and large-scale water resource assessments and can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.918731 (Jones et al., 2020).

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From Buildings’ End of Life to Aggregate Recycling under a Circular Economic Perspective: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Case Study

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13179625 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (17) ◽

pp. 9625

Author(s):

Ambroise Lachat ◽

Konstantinos Mantalovas ◽

Tiffany Desbois ◽

Oumaya Yazoghli-Marzouk ◽

Anne-Sophie Colas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

End Of Life ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Open Loop ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Construction And Demolition Waste ◽

Recycled Aggregates ◽

Demolition Waste

The demolition of buildings, apart from being energy intensive and disruptive, inevitably produces construction and demolition waste (C&Dw). Unfortunately, even today, the majority of this waste ends up underexploited and not considered as valuable resources to be re-circulated into a closed/open loop process under the umbrella of circular economy (CE). Considering the amount of virgin aggregates needed in civil engineering applications, C&Dw can act as sustainable catalyst towards the preservation of natural resources and the shift towards a CE. This study completes current research by presenting a life cycle inventory compilation and life cycle assessment case study of two buildings in France. The quantification of the end-of-life environmental impacts of the two buildings and subsequently the environmental impacts of recycled aggregates production from C&Dw was realized using the framework of life cycle assessment (LCA). The results indicate that the transport of waste, its treatment, and especially asbestos’ treatment are the most impactful phases. For example, in the case study of the first building, transport and treatment of waste reached 35% of the total impact for global warming. Careful, proactive, and strategic treatment, geolocation, and transport planning is recommended for the involved stakeholders and decision makers in order to ensure minimal sustainability implications during the implementation of CE approaches for C&Dw.

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