Pinch Analysis and Emission Intensity for Waste Management Planning: EU 28

Waste recovery and disposal are one of the biggest management challenges. An adequate waste management design is critical in contributing to the development of a sustainable circular economy. There is a need for a systematic and preferably graphical approach to assessing the emission associated with waste treatment processes followed by strategies for mitigation. This study aims to propose a graphical approach in identifying the appropriate waste management system with lower emissions. The proposed graph-based approach, termed as Extended-Waste Management Pinch Analysis (E-WAMPA) is analogous to the existing WAMPA. It differs from WAMPA by three major points a) Emission intensity of waste management system (Net GHG per capita) is introduced to replace the original y-axis, b) the emission of recycling is not assumed as zero c) The demonstration is based on the defined targets, projection and power grid mix of EU. A generic methodology of E-WAMPA is first presented followed by EU-28 case study to elucidate the application. The considered waste type is municipal solid waste (MSW) and the assessed emission is GHG. E-WAMPA capable to suggest the strategies to fulfill the targeted waste management system intensity of a region (e.g. zero) while meeting the individual treatment targets (e.g. 10 % reduction of landfill target and 65 % recycling rate). One of the possible strategies is by adjusting the waste management system of Malta by having 50 kt of MSW for recycling, 55 kt to incineration, 219 kt to the landfill instead of 21 kt for recycling and 283 kt to landfill. The strength, limitation and way forward of E-WAMPA has also been discussed.