Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste ...

Chair of Waste Management and Emissions
The results indicated the presence of the biological
waste in a high percentage, as well as a high quantity
of plastics, paper and glass, therefore a considerable
potential for material and energy recovery.
Financed:
Umweltministerium Baden-Württemberg
Project partners:
Universität Stuttgart, Institut für Siedlungswasserbau,
Wassergüte- und Abfallwirtschaft - Lehrstuhl
für Abfallwirtschaft und Abluft; Universitatea Politehnica
„Timisoara“, Facultatea de Hidrotehnica;
Agentia Nationala de Protectie a Mediului; Retim
Ecologic Service SA; Goscom Vaslui SA
Duration:
2008-2009
Contact:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Kranert
Dr.-Ing. Klaus Fischer
Dipl.-Ing., M.Sc. Mihaela Berechet
Dipl.-Ing. Oliver Schiere
FORWAST: Project full title: Overall mapping of
physical flows and stocks of resources to forecast
waste quantities in Europe and identify lifecycle
environmental stakes of waste prevention
and recycling.
Project summary:
The FORWAST project intends to provide:
• an inventory of the historically cumulated physical
stock of materials in EU-27 (EU-25 plus Romania
and Bulgaria), and to forecast the expected
amounts of waste generated, per resource category,
in the next 25 years.
• an assessment of the life-cycle wide environmental
impacts from different scenarios of waste prevention,
recycling and waste treatment in the EU-
27.
The work programme is designed to favour the synergy
between these objectives, by applying a generic model
for material flows, stocks and emissions. The proposed
model is an environmentally extended, physical,
quasi-dynamic input-output model. This model combined
with a robust method of Material Flow Analysis
will guide the mining of new data, which is the main
focus of the project. It will take place as a combination
of “in-depth” studies in selected countries where highquality
statistics are available, and an EU-wide effort
consolidating and calibrating different statistical and
technical data sources.
The model will be applied to historical time series of
resource inflows into the economy, and calibrated to
known quantities of waste generation, the core question
being to estimate coefficients for stocks life time
for the different materials (sand/gravel, wood, metals,
paper, etc.) and interpret dynamically the causes of
the variation of stocks (accumulation versus waste generation
or dispersive losses).
The policy relevance of the project will be strengthened
by the definition of 25 years horizon scenarios of
waste generation combined with technological options
for waste prevention and recycling. The waste with the
higher stakes to reduce environmental pressures will
be assessed trough simulations.
It is expected that the FORWAST project will bring a
new insight into Life Cycle Thinking, and above all,
more confidence in the use of environmental indicators
in natural resources and waste management policies.
Project objective(s):
The FORWAST project intends to provide comprehensive
and validated data on the material flows, stocks
and environmental pressures coming from the different
sectors of the life cycle of resources to waste.
In the wider context of sustainable development and
environment protection, the connections between the
use of natural resources, their accumulation in economy
and waste generation and management need to be
more clearly understood. Waste management policies
may affect potentially all sectors. Their influence on
the use of natural resources must also account for the
potential recovery of these resources from stocks, the
technical and economical constraints of recycling, the
side effects on the by-products associated with natural
resources, and at the end, the global balance of the
environmental costs and benefits.
The current uncertainties on the environmental stakes
of waste policies are pre-dominantly due to a lack of
real physical data on the quantities and qualities of
flows of resources, either natural or coming from waste
recovery. Particularly important for the latter is to
account for the actual stocks of these resources that
will end-up in the waste flows in the future.
The objectives of the proposed FORWAST project are
therefore to:
• Provide an inventory of the historically cumulated
physical stock of materials in EU-27 (EU-25 plus
Romania and Bulgaria), and to forecast the expected
amounts of waste generated, per resource
category, in the next 25 years.
• Provide an assessment of the life-cycle wide environmental
impacts from different scenarios of
86