title: Evaluation of different end-of-life management alternatives for used natural cork stoppers through life cycle assessment.
abstract: An important aspect of sustainable development is the implementation of effective and sustainable waste management strategies. The present study focuses on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to different waste management strategies for natural cork stoppers, namely incineration at a municipal solid waste incinerator, landfilling in a sanitary landfill, and recycling. In the literature, there are no LCA studies analyzing in detail the end-of-life stage of natural cork stoppers as well as other cork products. In addition, cork is usually treated as wood at the end-of-life stage. Thus, the outcome of this study can provide an important insight into this matter. The results showed that different management alternatives, namely incineration and recycling, could be chosen depending on the impact category considered. The former alternative presented the best environmental results in the impact categories of climate change, ozone depletion and acidification, while the latter for photochemical ozone formation and mineral and fossil resource depletion. The landfilling alternative did not present the best environmental performance in any of the impact categories. However, when the biogenic carbon dioxide emission was assessed for the climate change category, the landfilling alternative was found to be the most effective since most of the biogenic carbon would be permanently stored in the cork products and not emitted into the atmosphere. A sensitivity analysis was performed and the results showed that there are various parameters that can significantly influence the results (e.g., carbon content in cork and decay rate of cork in the landfill). Thus, LCA studies should include a detailed description concerning their assumptions when the end-of-life stage is included in the boundaries since they can influence the results, and furthermore, to facilitate the comparison of different end-of-life scenarios. The present study and the obtained results could be useful for the decision-making process concerning public solid waste policies and industrial strategies.
authors.affiliation: Center of Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: marthademertzi@ua.pt.
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Demertzi
authors.affiliation: Center of Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: acdias@ua.pt.
authors.forename: Ana Cláudia
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Dias
authors.affiliation: Center of Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: amatos@ua.pt.
authors.forename: Arlindo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matos
authors.affiliation: Center of Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: arroja@ua.pt.
authors.forename: Luís Manuel
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Arroja
mesh_terms: D017745:Incineration; D029963:Quercus; D059027:Recycling; D012037:Refuse Disposal; D062611:Solid Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D064091:Waste Disposal Facilities; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D062611:Solid Waste
keywords: Biogenic carbon; Incineration; Landfilling; Life cycle assessment; Natural cork stoppers; Recycling