Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-017-0693-2 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Life-cycle assessment of solid-waste management in city of Zagreb, Croatia Alen Hadzic 1  · Neven Voca 2  · Sandra Golubic 3 Received: 19 April 2017 / Accepted: 6 December 2017 © Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2017 Abstract In terms of improvement of the existing municipal solid-waste management system in city of Zagreb (Croatia) in a line with legal requirements and its shift towards circular economy, two scenarios were investigated. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used to compare the existing municipal solid-waste management system mainly relay on landflling of waste with expanded system combining mechanical separation of recyclable fractions of mixed municipal waste (MMW), anaerobic digestion of organic fraction, and thermal treatment of residual waste. The waste management-dedicated LCA software EASETECH was used for the assessment of the scenarios in accordance with the EDIP 1997 LCA method. Improved solid-waste management scenario showed superior results in terms of increased recycling rate of valuable materials and overall environmental performance. Because of introduction of convenient mechanical, biological, and thermal treatment technologies, it enables fulflment of legal obligation concerning waste recycling targets and landflling of waste. Keywords LCA · Bio-waste · Mixed municipal waste · Landfll · Composting Introduction Waste management in the EU including Croatia With the growth of urbanization, the generation of waste is increasing rapidly. Each year in European Union (EU), approximately 3 billion tons of waste is produced. Solid- waste management is known to be an important contribu- tor to many different environmental problems, such as climate change (e.g., from emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from landflls and waste collection and transporta- tion), stratospheric ozone depletion (e.g., from emissions of halocarbons in discarded cooling systems or in-use foams), human health damages (e.g., from exposure to chemicals and particles during waste collection and treatment), eco- system damages (e.g., from emissions of heavy metals to air, soil and surface water), and resource depletion (e.g., due to currently inexistent or inefcient recycling systems for cer- tain key minerals or metals), to name but a few [1]. Because of its impacts on the environment, many eforts have been undertaken to explore diferent approaches and technology solutions with more environmentally favorable options. Therefore, planning and implementation of municipal solid- waste management systems (MSWMS) are crucial for sus- tainable development of urban areas. Collection, recycling, treatment, and disposal of continuously growing quantities of solid waste are substantial challenges for municipalities. In EU, even nowadays, most of the waste still ends up in landflls (61 million tons in 2015) [2], despite their negative impacts correlated to methane and CO 2 production and emis- sion due to decomposition of biodegradable waste and per- manent leaching of toxic substances. Moreover, huge quan- tities of recyclable materials like paper, glass, plastic, and metals are wasted instead of being re-used. In view of these problems, the EU in 1999 adopted the Landfll Directive [3], and, later on, in 2008, the Waste Framework Directive [4] which requires the member states to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going to the landflls and to promote the adoption of measures to increase and improve source separation of valuable waste fractions for further recy- cling and recovery. Waste recycling and re-use is the main goal imposed by the latest EU Waste Framework Directive * Neven Voca nvoca@agr.hr 1 Zagreb Holding, Radnicka cesta 82, Zagreb, Croatia 2 Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Svetosimunska cesta 25, Zagreb, Croatia 3 Medjimurje County, Rudjera Boskovica 2, Cakovec, Croatia