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Life cycle environmental assessment of industrial hazardous waste incineration and landfilling in China

  • LCA OF WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
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The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The improper handling of industrial hazardous waste (IHW), which comprises large amounts of toxic chemicals, heavy metals, or irradiation substances, is a considerable threat to human health and the environment. This study aims to quantify the life cycle environmental impacts of IHW landfilling and incineration in China, to identify its key factors, to improve its potential effects, and to establish a hazardous waste disposal inventory.

Methods

Life cycle assessment was conducted using the ReCiPe model to estimate the environmental impact of IHW landfilling and incineration. The characterization factors for the human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity categories shown in the ReCiPe were updated based on the geographies, population, food intake, and environmental conditions in China.

Results and discussion

The overall environmental burden was mainly attributed to the carcinogen category. The national carcinogen burden in 2014 at 37.8 CTUh was dominated by diesel consumption, cement and sodium hydroxide production, direct emission, transportation, and electricity generation stages caused by direct mercury and arsenic emissions, as well as indirect chromium emission. Although the atmospheric mercury emission directly caused by IHW incineration was comparative with the emission levels of developed countries, the annual direct mercury emission accounted for approximately 0.1% of the national mercury emission.

Conclusions

The key factors contributing to the reduction of the national environmental burden include the increasing diesel and electricity consumption efficiency, the reduction of cement and sodium hydroxide use, the development of air pollutant controlling systems, the reduction of transport distance between IHW disposers to suppliers, and the improvement of IHW recycling and reuse technologies.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 31171428; 71671105), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University NCET-13-0344, the Institute of the Fundamental Research Funds of Shandong University (2015JC036 and 2015JC016), and China Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Co. Ltd. (GJN-14-07).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, People’s Republic of China

    Jinglan Hong, Liping Ye & Congcong Qi

  2. School of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaofei Han, Meng Wang & Xiangzhi Li

  3. College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Yilu Chen

Authors
  1. Jinglan Hong
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  2. Xiaofei Han
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  3. Yilu Chen
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  4. Meng Wang
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  5. Liping Ye
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  6. Congcong Qi
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  7. Xiangzhi Li
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jinglan Hong or Xiangzhi Li.

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Responsible editor: Zuoren Nie

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Hong, J., Han, X., Chen, Y. et al. Life cycle environmental assessment of industrial hazardous waste incineration and landfilling in China. Int J Life Cycle Assess 22, 1054–1064 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1228-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1228-0

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