Page 73 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Life Cycle Assessment: Principles, Practice and Prospects
60
Table 6.2 Net savings from recycling for a typical Melbourne household per week
Impact Totals Unit Equivalence
Greenhouse gases 3.2 kg CO This equates to 0.25% of a household’s total
2
eq. allocation of greenhouse gases from all sources
Embodied energy 32.2 MJ Enough energy (9 kWh) to run a 40 Watt light
bulb for 72 hours (accounting for electricity
losses)
Smog precursors 1.3 g C H Equivalent to the emissions from 4.5 km of
2 4
eq. travel in an average post-1985 passenger car
Water use 92.5 litres The equivalent of five sink-loads of dishes
Solid waste 3.6 kilogram Depending on the material, 60% to 90% of the
product put out for recycling will remain out of
the solid waste stream
kg CO eq., kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents; kWh, kilowatt hours; MJ, megajoule; g C H eq., grams of
2
2 4
ethylene equivalents.
s reducing smog and other transport emissions from waste collection vehicles in urban
areas by using efficient vehicles, with either pollution control equipment, and/or
alternative fuels such as natural gas
s maintaining good landfill management practices particularly in terms of gas capture
for energy recovery, landfill capping and leachate control.
It was recommended that strategies for dealing with non-recyclable paper and plastic frac-
tions be investigated, particularly in the context of management of the broader organic material
stream. Modelling was then also undertaken for five urban councils and one rural council in
New South Wales, with similar findings.
6.2.2 Case study 2: environmental economics and recycling
In 1999, state and federal governments and Australian companies in the packaging supply
chain signed the voluntary National Packaging Covenant, the purpose of which was to foster
efficient and environmentally sustainable systems for the management of used packaging
materials. In 2000, the National Packaging Covenant Council commissioned Nolan-ITU Pty
Ltd and SKM Economics to undertake a study entitled ‘Independent Economic Assessment of
Kerbside Collection and Recycling Systems for Used Packaging Materials in Australia’. The
aim of the study was to assess the net costs and benefits of kerbside collection and recycling
systems and their viability (Nolan-ITU and SKM Economics 2001). It was the first time in
Australia that kerbside collection and recycling of used packaging materials were examined for
their financial, environmental and social costs and benefits. Previous studies had focused
solely on the financial aspects. For the environmental assessment, the overarching methodol-
ogy was cost-benefit analysis. This involved identifying and valuing environmental externali-
ties of collection and recycling systems to enable the findings to be incorporated into the
integrated economic assessment. Modelled inventory data was aggregated into environmental
impact categories and then valued by applying environmental economic benefit assessment
techniques based on published Australian government references (Nolan-ITU and SKM Eco-
nomics 2001). This approach challenged the way environmental issues were evaluated and how
to determine the dollar value to place upon emissions. The environmental component of the
study will be the focus of this case study.
The net costs and benefits of kerbside collection and recycling systems were assessed
across a range of different collection systems from 200 councils in regional and metropolitan
areas in each state and territory in Australia. A range of recycling and collection systems for

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