LCA OF WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS Comparing technologies for municipal solid waste management using life cycle assessment methodology: a Belgian case study Sandra Belboom & Jean-Marc Digneffe & Robert Renzoni & Albert Germain & Angélique Léonard Received: 6 June 2012 / Accepted: 14 May 2013 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Abstract Purpose The present study aims at identifying the best practice in residual municipal solid waste management using specific data from Liège, a highly industrialized and densely populated region of Belgium. We also illustrate the importance of assumptions relative to energy through sensi- tivity analyses and checking uncertainties regarding the re- sults using a Monte Carlo analysis. Methods We consider four distinct household waste manage- ment scenarios. A life cycle assessment is made for each of them using the ReCiPe method. The first scenario is sanitary landfill, which is considered as the base case. In the second scenario, the refuse-derived fuel fraction is incinerated and a sanitary landfill is used for the remaining shredded organic and inert waste only. The third scenario consists in incinerat- ing the whole fraction of municipal solid waste. In the fourth scenario, the biodegradable fraction is collected and the remaining waste is incinerated. The extracted biodegrad- able fraction is then treated in an anaerobic digestion plant. Results and discussion The present study shows that various scenarios have significantly different environmental impact. Compared to sanitary landfill, scenario 4 has a highly reduced environmental impact in terms of climate change and partic- ulate matter formation. An environmental gain, equal to 10, 37, or 1.3 times the impact of scenario 1 is obtained for, respectively, human toxicity, mineral depletion, and fossil fuel depletion categories. These environmental gains are due to energetic valorization via the incineration and anaerobic di- gestion. Considering specific categories, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 17 % in scenario 2 and by 46 % in scenarios 3 and 4. For the particulate matter formation cate- gory, a 71 % reduction is achieved by scenario 3. The figures are slightly modified by the Monte Carlo analysis but the ranking of the scenarios is left unchanged. Conclusions The present study shows that replacing a san- itary landfill by efficient incineration significantly reduces both emissions of pollutants and energy depletion, thanks to electricity recovery. Keywords Incineration . Life cycle assessment . Monte Carlo Analysis . ReCiPe . Waste management 1 Introduction All human activities generate waste. This issue has become an important problem over the years with urbanization and the growth of population (Giusti 2009). Sustainable development encompasses several actions as the reduction of polluting emissions and the establishment of sustainable waste manage- ment practices (Cherubini et al. 2009). Concerns regarding this issue have increased considerably over the years with the adoption and application of the waste hierarchy as the “rule of thumb” proposed by the European Union (2006). This ap- proach primarily promotes prevention, aiming to reduce the production of waste in the first place, and advocating reuse, Responsible editor: Shabbir Gheewala Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11367-013-0603-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. S. Belboom (*) : R. Renzoni : A. Germain : A. Léonard Department of Chemical Engineering, Processes and Sustainable Development, University of Liège, 3 Allée de la Chimie, 4000, Liège, Belgium e-mail: sbelboom@ulg.ac.be J.<M. Digneffe Intradel, Port de Herstal–Pré Wigi, 4040, Herstal, Belgium Int J Life Cycle Assess DOI 10.1007/s11367-013-0603-3