title: Environmental impacts of residual municipal solid waste incineration: a comparison of 110 French incinerators using a life cycle approach.
abstract: Incineration is the main option for residual Municipal Solid Waste treatment in France. This study compares the environmental performances of 110 French incinerators (i.e., 85% of the total number of plants currently in activity in France) in a Life Cycle Assessment perspective, considering 5 non-toxic impact categories: climate change, photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification and marine eutrophication. Mean, median and lower/upper impact potentials are determined considering the incineration of 1 tonne of French residual Municipal Solid Waste. The results highlight the relatively large variability of the impact potentials as a function of the plant technical performances. In particular, the climate change impact potential of the incineration of 1 tonne of waste ranges from a benefit of -58 kg CO2-eq to a relatively large burden of 408 kg CO2-eq, with 294 kg CO2-eq as the average impact. Two main plant-specific parameters drive the impact potentials regarding the 5 non-toxic impact categories under study: the energy recovery and delivery rate and the NOx process-specific emissions. The variability of the impact potentials as a function of incinerator characteristics therefore calls for the use of site-specific data when required by the LCA goal and scope definition phase, in particular when the study focuses on a specific incinerator or on a local waste management plan, and when these data are available.
authors.affiliation: BRGM, BP 6009, 3 av. C. Guillemin, 45060 Orléans Cedex, France. Electronic address: a.beylot@brgm.fr.
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Beylot
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Villeneuve
mesh_terms: D004777:Environment; D005602:France; D017745:Incineration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Environmental impacts; Incineration; Life Cycle Assessment; Residual Municipal Solid Waste; Waste management