| Environmental evaluation of municipal waste prevention. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 21924602 Owner: NLM Status: Publisher |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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Waste prevention has been addressed in the literature in terms of the social and behavioural aspects, but very little quantitative assessment exists of the environmental benefits. Our study evaluates the environmental consequences of waste prevention on waste management systems and on the wider society, using life-cycle thinking. The partial prevention of unsolicited mail, beverage packaging and food waste is tested for a "High-tech" waste management system relying on high energy and material recovery and for a "Low-tech" waste management system with less recycling and relying on landfilling. Prevention of 13% of the waste mass entering the waste management system generates a reduction of loads and savings in the waste management system for the different impacts categories; 45% net reduction for nutrient enrichment and 12% reduction for global warming potential. When expanding our system and including avoided production incurred by the prevention measures, large savings are observed (15-fold improvement for nutrient enrichment and 2-fold for global warming potential). Prevention of food waste has the highest environmental impact saving. Prevention generates relatively higher overall relative benefit for "Low-tech" systems depending on landfilling. The paper provides clear evidence of the environmental benefits of waste prevention and has specific relevance in climate change mitigation. |
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Authors:
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Emmanuel C Gentil; Daniele Gallo; Thomas H Christensen |
Publication Detail:
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Type: JOURNAL ARTICLE Date: 2011-9-14 |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Waste management (New York, N.Y.) Volume: - ISSN: 1879-2456 ISO Abbreviation: - Publication Date: 2011 Sep |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2011-9-19 Completed Date: - Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 9884362 Medline TA: Waste Manag Country: - |
Other Details:
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Languages: ENG Pagination: - Citation Subset: - |
Copyright Information:
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Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
Affiliation:
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Department of Environmental Engineering, Building 115, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark. |
Export Citation:
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From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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