Energy Reports 6 (2020) 286–296 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/egyr Research paper Waste capacity and its environmental impact of a residential district during its life cycle Hatice Sözer ∗ , Hüseyin Sözen Istanbul Technical University, Energy Institute, Turkey article info Article history: Received 13 September 2019 Received in revised form 21 January 2020 Accepted 21 January 2020 Available online 27 January 2020 Keywords: Life cycle assessment District-scale waste management Waste capacity Municipal solid waste Liquid waste Demolition waste abstract Buildings generate a significant amount of waste that has considerable impacts on environment and energy flow. This study aims to investigate the waste capacity of the selected district and its effect on the environment within the current waste management policy via Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology based on the two indicators; global warming potential and energy flow. The district has 82 buildings with 64,971m2 total gross area and 2,000 populations. Accordingly, the district’s waste capacity was evaluated within the classification of Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW), liquid wastes, and demolition wastes. The system boundaries of the LCA were set based on the gate-to-grave approach, which includes generated wastes during the lifespan of the buildings, including their end-of-life stage. Consequently, energy recovery potentials from waste processes were investigated and compared with the primary energy demand of the operational energy consumption of the buildings to perceive the amount of energy compensation range. Additionally, buildings’ physical conditions, which obtained from their Building Information Models (BIM), energy performances, derived from their energy models and local specifications, obtained from standards were utilized to identify the current conditions and waste management systems. Critically, the outcomes of all those were used as input data for the LCA model. The results showed that there had been energy recovery potentials from MSW’s treatments, while liquid wastes and demolishing wastes treatments have consumed energy. Energy recovery potential from MSW has compensated only 5.8% of operational energy annually, which came from recycling processes. Also, all waste management systems release greenhouse gases to the atmosphere that cause global warming. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. Introduction Waste leads to significant environmental and health problems, though it has considerable recovery potential due to the recy- cling process if appropriately treated. The amount of total house- hold waste that was generated in EU countries was 214,240,000 tons/year in 2016, which 18% was recyclable (Anon, 2018). Cor- respondingly, the amount of wastes generated by households in Turkey was 27,985,092 tons in 2016 (Anon, 2018) which is almost 8% higher than in EU countries. Because of that, authorities have to manage the wastes carefully to avoid their harmful effect and take advantage of their waste recovery potential. Wastes that are generated in the buildings could be catego- rized into three groups as Municipal solid waste (MSW), liquid waste, and demolition waste. MSWs and liquid wastes are gener- ated during the building-in-use period, while demolition wastes ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: sozerh@itu.edu.tr (H. Sözer). occur after the building is demolished. There are different treat- ment processes for each waste type; therefore, their management plan, impacts on the environment, and human health have to be defined and assessed individually. LCA methodology is commonly used to investigate waste management policies and their im- pact on the environment, energy flow, and health from material production to the disposal process. There are different system boundary approaches to define the scope of the LCA. The most detailed one is the cradle-to-grave approach, which evaluation process starts from the raw material extraction and finishes in the disposal phase. However, waste management is mostly utilized in the gate-to-grave approach, where the material production phase of waste is not considered. Blengini et al. (2012) also suggest applying the cradle-to-grave approach to waste management. Correspondingly, Di Maria and Micale (2014) analyzed a waste management system within the gate-to-grave approach in Italy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2020.01.008 2352-4847/© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc-nd/4.0/).