The continuously expanding amounts of waste produced in the EU constitute a major concern at a European level. Municipal waste management represents one of the most critical problems that need to be addressed in Greece, despite the lack of available funds due to the financial crisis. Nowadays, Waste Framework Directive is poorly implemented and many illegal landfills still pollute the environment, with Greece being penalized by the European Court of Justice for several cases. On this basis, the development of an optimal waste management strategy, exploiting all available technologies and taking into account all waste streams is more than critical at a national level.
This thesis focuses on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of different scenarios of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management practices in an effort to estimate quantitatively their environmental impacts and identify the alternative that provides the best environmental output for municipal waste management plans. An LCA study is conducted for municipal solid waste in the Region of Central Macedonia, Greece. In the LCA the current waste management plan is compared both with the future management plan for the study area, and a scenario in compliance with the past practices in the area.
Key findings of the study are summarized below. The most environmental friendly scenario is the one where high rates of sorting of the waste at the source take place. In this scenario, great quantities of MSW are recycled and most of the organic fraction is composted, thus results in significant environmental benefits due to material recovery. The scenario that examined the landfill of municipal waste as the main treatment method is the most undesirable from an environmental point of view. Overall, the implementation of an integrated waste management system with high rates of separately collection of the waste streams is necessary in the area.
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