scholarly journals Are LCA Studies on Bulk Mineral Waste Management Suitable for Decision Support? A Critical Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4686
Author(s):  
Christian Dierks ◽  
Tabea Hagedorn ◽  
Alessio Campitelli ◽  
Winfried Bulach ◽  
Vanessa Zeller
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Substitution Effects ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Waste Streams ◽  
Mineral Waste ◽  
Lca Results

Bulk mineral waste materials are one of the largest waste streams worldwide and their management systems can differ greatly depending on regional conditions. Due to this variation, the decision-making context is of particular importance when studying environmental impacts of mineral waste management systems with life cycle assessment (LCA). We follow the premise that LCA results—if applied in practice—are always used in an improvement (i.e., decision-making) context. But how suitable are existing LCA studies on bulk mineral waste management for decision support? To answer this question, we quantitatively and qualitatively assess 57 peer-reviewed bulk mineral waste management LCA studies against 47 criteria. The results show inadequacies regarding decision support along all LCA phases. Common shortcomings are insufficient attention to the specific decision-making context, lack of a consequential perspective, liberal use of allocation and limited justification thereof, missing justifications for excluded impact categories, inadequately discussed limitations, and incomplete documentation. We identified the following significant issues for bulk mineral waste management systems: transportation, the potential leaching of heavy metals, second-order substitution effects, and the choice to include or exclude avoided landfilling and embodied impacts. When applicable, we provide recommendations for improvement and point to best practice examples.

scholarly journals Poland’s Proposal for a Safe Solution of Waste Treatment during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Circular Economy Connection

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 3939
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Pikoń ◽  
Nikolina Poranek ◽  
Adrian Czajkowski ◽  
Beata Łaźniewska-Piekarczyk
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Treatment ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Municipal Solid Waste ◽  
Solid Waste ◽  
Economic Impact ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Waste Treatment ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Waste Streams

The purpose of the study presented in this text is to show the influence of COVID-19 on waste management systems and circular economy stream, and their impact on circular economy, particularly the economic impact of the pandemic on the waste management sector, impact on circular economy objectives’ implementation as well as additional challenges like the need for hygienization of waste streams during different implementation efforts, such as changes in the municipal solid waste market and different waste processes of their disposal. Additionally, some methods—such as thermal treatment—which seemed to be not fully aligned with the circular economy approach have advantages not taken into account before. Incineration of higher volume of waste affects the waste structure and will change some of the circular economy objectives. The analysis was carried out on the example of the Polish market.

scholarly journals Decision Support Tools for Selecting Organisational Improvement Initiatives: a Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.7) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Musli Mohammad ◽  
Ligesh Manni Vattiyan ◽  
Mohd Shahir Yahya
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Decision Support Tools ◽  
Decision Matrix ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Support Tools ◽  
Improvement Team

Decision support tools are used in many organisations to support organisational decision making activities. However, very limited studies have been found focussing on the decision support tools for selecting organisational improvement initiatives. Improvement initiatives are approaches, management systems, tools and/or techniques that can be used for managing and improving organisations, such as Lean, ISO9001 and Improvement Team. Four existing decision support tools were reviewed and compared. All four decision support tools consist of decision matrix, rating and ranking to assist in selecting appropriate improvement initiative. Finally, several potential future studies have been proposed.  

scholarly journals Strategies for Improving the E-Waste Management Supply Chain Sustainability in Indonesia (Jakarta)

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 13955
Author(s):  
Nurhadi Wibowo ◽  
Jerry Kuswara Piton ◽  
Rahmat Nurcahyo ◽  
Djoko Sihono Gabriel ◽  
Farizal Farizal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Electronic Waste ◽  
Waste Streams ◽  
Analytical Network Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
Network Process

Electronic waste (e-waste) has become one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world. However, only 17.4% of it can be collected and recycled in 2019. This study aims to formulate strategies to improve the supply chain of e-waste management in Indonesia. Methods used to develop strategies in this study are the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), the Analytical Network Process (ANP), Strength–Weaknesses–Opportunities–Threats (SWOT), and the Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM). The results show that infrastructure criteria have the largest weight, that is 0.267, followed by a social environment with 0.261, regulation with 0.244, stakeholder with 0.122, and economy with 0.054. The top priority of the selected strategies is to improve public education (ST1) and provide socialization of regulations and sanctions to the public (ST2).

scholarly journals A Volunteered Geographic Information-Based Environmental Decision Support System for Waste Management and Decision Making

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 6012
Author(s):  
Abolghasem Sadeghi-Niaraki ◽  
Mohammadreza Jelokhani-Niaraki ◽  
Soo-Mi Choi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Decision Support System ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Support System ◽  
Volunteered Geographic Information ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Environmental Decision

The need for in-depth and fast observation of waste pollutions, increase in public concerns on environmental pollution and the effect of polluted environment on the physical and mental health of people have led to participatory environmental monitoring and protection. Citizens can act as volunteer, interactive, group, logical, smart, responsible, mobile, and dispersed observers/sensors to constantly monitor their surroundings and provide real-time data of waste pollutions that are not easily remotely sensed. The concept of volunteered geographic information (VGI) can be adopted as an effective phenomenon for participatory collection of environmental pollution data. However, the research problem is how to effectively use these citizen-contributed or volunteered information for waste management analyses and decision-making processes. Consequently, the objective of the present study is to develop a VGI-based environmental decision support tool that facilitates direct involvement of the public in generating waste pollution data and provides appropriate GIS-MCDA (multicriteria decision analysis) analytical tools for waste management and decision making using the citizen-contributed data. A web-based prototype of the decision support system was developed to demonstrate the practical feasibility, applicability and some functionalities of the system for pollution-related decision analyses.

scholarly journals A Review of Waste Management Decision Support Tools and Their Ability to Assess Circular Biowaste Management Systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eldbjørg Blikra Vea ◽  
Veronica Martinez-Sanchez ◽  
Marianne Thomsen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Decision Support Tools ◽  
Support Tools

The circular economy concept offers a number of solutions to increasing amounts of biowaste and resource scarcity by valorising biowaste. However, it is necessary to consistently address the environmental benefits and impacts of circular biowaste management systems (CBWMS). Various decision support tools (DST) for environmental assessment of waste management systems (WMS) exist. This study provides a review of life cycle assessment based WMS-DSTs. Twenty-five WMS-DSTs were identified and analysed through a shortlisting procedure. Eight tools were shortlisted for the assessment of their applicability to deliver sustainability assessment of CBWMS. It was found that six tools model key properties that are necessary for assessing the environmental sustainability of CBWMSs, including waste-specific modelling of gaseous emissions, biogas generation or bioproduct composition. However, only two tools consider both waste-specific heavy metals content in bioproducts and the associated implications when applied on soil. Most of the shortlisted tools are flexible to simulate new technologies involved in CBWMS. Nevertheless, only two tools allow importing directly new background data, which is important when modelling substitution of new bioproducts developed in emerging biowaste refineries.

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