Page 71 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Life Cycle Assessment: Principles, Practice and Prospects
58

Figure 6.6 Dynamics of greenhouse gas emissions from landfill.
s yield of materials at kerbside
s household washing behaviour
s a case study on regional recycling (Bendigo)
s recycling collection frequency.
Overall, none of the sensitivities tested altered the direction of the results. However, landfill
assumptions and reprocessing yields were shown to have significant potential to change the
magnitude of the results.
The net savings from recycling for a typical Melbourne household per week are presented
in Table 6.2 with equivalency factors used to aid interpretation.
The study concluded that the most important factors for maximising the environmental
benefits from landfill are (Grant et al. 2001):
s recycling to the highest value product so as to avoid the production of high value, and
high environmental impact, virgin materials
s maintaining or increasing the mass of materials from household catchments, without
compromising the usability of the material at end-of-life – this increase in total
environmental returns comes from avoided products and avoided landfill, while also
making the collection more efficient on a per tonne basis

100804•Life Cycle Assessment 5pp.indd 58 17/02/09 12:46:17 PM