International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

increases of the significance of the distinction between sub 10 micron
particles;
� Some attention is being given to the potential health effects– though we are
not aware of any study which has attempted to make an assessment of the
associated external costs – of bioaerosols from biological treatment plants;
� The focus of the majority of studies – or at least, of the valuation element - is
on the emissions to the atmosphere associated with different processes. The
effects of processes on, for example, water pollution are generally not
explored. This is of interest since few studies apply any discount factor to the
emissions to atmosphere from processes which generate emissions over
extended periods of time (such as landfilling, composting, anaerobic digestion,
mechanical biological treatment, etc.). If a zero discount rate is being
(implicitly) applied, it would be consistent to consider the emissions from
landfills (and landfilled residues from incineration plants) over the longer term.
Recent life-cycle studies suggest that if such emissions were, indeed, taken
into account, they might become decisive in any analysis of environmental
performance, especially if a zero discount rate is applied; 1145
3) Following from the above few studies appear to have applied a non-zero discount
rate to account for the fact that the emissions from some processes occur over an
extended period of time. The use of a non-zero rate would tend to have the effect
of reducing, in relative significance, the following externalities:
� Atmospheric emissions from landfills, MBT facilities, compost facilities,
anaerobic digestion facilities;
� The benefits associated from the capture of methane from landfills for energy
generation;
� Emissions to water and land from the landfilling of residues, whether these be
from incinerator bottom ash, incinerator air pollution control residues,
untreated refuse, MBT-treated residues, etc. However, only a few studies
appear to have attributed any environmental cost to these; 1146
� Emissions to air, land and water from the application of the products of
biological treatment (i.e. composts or digestion residuals) to land, as well as
those from any ‘displaced products’.
4) The way in which the flux of greenhouse gases is handled in the non-zero discount
rate case may be very important for the final analysis, but extremely difficult to
1145 See S. Hellweg (2000) Time- and Site-Dependent Life-Cycle Assessment of Thermal Waste
Treatment Processes, Dissertation submitted to the Swiss Federal Institute Of Technology. AWS, IFIP &
GUA (2000): Bewertung abfallwirtschaftlicher Maßnahmen mit dem Ziel der nachsorgefreien Deponie
– BEWEND. Unpublished case study Institute for Water Quality and Waste Management TU Vienna,
Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy TU Vienna & Gesellschaft für umfassende
Analysen GmbH, Vienna, Austria.
1146 See Nolan ITU (2004) TBL Assessment of garden organics management, Final Report to the NSW
Dept of Environment and Conservation, Sustainability Programs Division, May 2004; G. Döberl, R.
Huber, P.H. Brunner, M. Eder, R. Pierrard, W. Schönbäck, W. Frühwirth and H. Hutterer (2002) Longterm
assessment of waste management options - a new, integrated and goal-oriented approach, Waste
Management & Research, 20 (4), pp. 311-327; E. Dijkgraaf, and H. Vollebergh (2004) Burn or bury? A
social cost comparison of final waste disposal methods, Ecological Economics, 50, pp.233-247.
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