Life Cycle Assessments of Energy From Solid Waste (PDF)

This is also the reason for why extra transportation by passenger car to collection points is a
parameter tried for both recycling and incineration to evaluate the possible effects on the
results of this activity. In the scenario where this is modelled incineration without passenger
car transport is also included for comparison. It is assumed that source separated waste is not
collected at the house, but at collection points.
The collection system starts when the waste leaves the household. The steps in the transport
chain from that point will further on be described for the different treatment options
respectively. The data for different vehicles used are described in section 5.8. Transport
distances and type of vehicle used in the scenarios are presented in Table 3.2-4. The distances
are based mainly on own assumptions. As an inspiration, transport distances for Uppsala are
used in the base scenario (Sundqvist et al. 2000, appendix 2), and transport distances for a
rural municipality in the middle of Sweden for the long transports scenario using information
on actual treatment sites whenever possible.
The different transport scenarios are:
1) The base scenario with short distances
2) The medium transports scenario
3) The medium transports + passenger car scenario with medium distances for transports by
truck and transport by passenger car from the household to the collection point in the
recycling, digestion, composting and incineration options.
4) The long transports scenario where the distances for the recycling options are further
increased. For the other options the assumptions are generally the same as in 2).
In all the transport scenarios and for all waste management options an energy use of 0.134
MJ/kg waste is included for the first waste collection step. This figure is obtained from
Sonesson (1997) and corresponds to the fuel consumption during a waste collection route in
the city of Uppsala. Collection routes and the work connected are not the same for collection
of source separated waste from collection points and for collection of mixed waste at the
house. In the case of source separation and collection points the stops are fewer and the
distance travelled to fill the truck may be shorter than in the case of collection at the house.
The inclusion of 0.134 MJ/kg waste for all management options is consequently an
overestimation for recycling and also for incineration assuming source separation.
Recycling
In the base scenario the waste is, in the recycling cases, assumed to be collected at a
collection point close to the household, using a garbage truck. No transport by vehicle to the
collection point is assumed. Thereafter the waste is transported by a garbage truck 9 km to a
reloading point, plus 9 km empty return. From the reloading point to the recycling facility, the
distances assumed differ between the different waste fractions and they are presented in Table
3.2.
In the medium transports scenario the distance from collection point to reloading point is
increased to 100 km, plus 100 km empty return, and the distances therefrom to the recycling
facility are also increased as can be seen in Table 3.3.
The same distances as in the previous scenario are used in the third scenario, medium
transports + passenger car, with the addition of 1 km extra transport by passenger to leave
the waste at the collection point.
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