Abstract
We utilize life cycle assessment to trace conversion of degradable organic carbon (DOC) contained in organic waste from city markets in Da Nang, Vietnam. Our methodology makes explicit the process of conversion of DOC under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, as well as the balance of nutrients. Greenhouse gas emissions were calculated for six alternative scenarios: (i) anaerobic landfilling (current situation); (ii) semi-aerobic landfilling; (iii) landfill gas capture; (iv) composting; (v) pre-composting before landfill; and (vi) biogas production. We calculate that 1 t of waste in anaerobic landfilling emits 1.70 t CO2-eq. with life-cycle perspective. Lowest emission occurs in biogas scenario with 0.26 t CO2-eq./t. Composting occupies an intermediate position with 0.39 t CO2-eq./t. Likewise, we estimate that cost of emission reduction in solid waste sector of Vietnam is 15.13 US$/t CO2-eq., given by alternative of composting and taking anaerobic landfilling as reference. On the other hand, if social cost of carbon (SCC) is incorporated lowest cost to treat 1 t of waste is given by composting and semi-aerobic landfilling at discount rate of 5 %. However, using lower discount rates, and consequently higher values of SCC, composting and biogas production become the alternatives with lowest treatment costs.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Water & Sanitation Program World Bank (2008) Economic impacts of sanitation in Indonesia: a five-country study conducted in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, the Philippines, and Vietnam under the Economic of Sanitation Initiative (ESI). Water and Sanitation Program, East Asia and the Pacific, World Bank Office Jakarta
Thuc T (2012) NAMA potential in Vietnam. Director General of Vietnam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment. Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Available in Internet: http://www.transport-namadatabase.org/images/a/a6/Vietnam_PresentationMAINVietnam_2012_09.pdf. Last access: 30 Sep 2014
Aye L, Widjaya E (2006) Environmental and economic analyses of waste disposal options for traditional markets in Indonesia. Waste Manag 26(2006):1180–1191
Batool S, Chuadhry M (2009) The impact of municipal solid waste treatment methods on greenhouse gas emissions in Lahore, Pakistan. Waste Management 29(2009):63–69
Zhao W, van der Voet E, Zhang Y, Huppes G (2009) Life cycle assessment of solid waste management with regard to greenhouse gas emissions: Case study of Tianjin, China. Sci Total Environ 407(2009):1517–1526
Boldrin A, Andersen J, Moller J, Christensen T, Favoino E (2009) Composting and compost utilization: accounting of greenhouse gases and global warming contributions. J Waste Manag Res 27:800–812
Manfredi S, Tonini D, Christensen T, Scharff H (2009) Landfilling of waste: accounting of greenhouse gases and global warming contributions. Waste Manage Res 27:825–836
IPCC (2006) 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Chapter 3: Solid Waste Disposal
Lou X, Nair J (2009) The impact of landfilling and composting on greenhouse gas emissions. J Bioresour Technol 100(2009):3792–3794
Matsufuji Y, Hirata O, Tanaka A, Yanase R (2007) Biodegradation process and mass balance of different landfill types using large scale simulator and quality control of experimental method with lysimeter. In: Eleventh International Waste Management and Landfill, 1–5 October 2007, S. Margherita di Pula-Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy
Rajaram V, Siddiqui F, Khan M (2011) From landfill gas to energy: technologies and challenges. CRC Press
Barlaz M (1998) Carbon storage during biodegradation of municipal solid waste components in laboratory-scale landfills. Global Biogeochem Cycles 12(2):373–380
Matsufuji Y, Tanaka A, Hirata O (2008) Reduction of methane gas from landfills by anaerobic landfill type. Proceedings of APLAS Sapporo 2008. The 5th Asia-Pacific landfill Symposium. Sapporo, Japan October 2008
Iglesias E, Perez V (1991) Composting of domestic refuse waste and sewage sludge. I. evolution of temperature, pH, C/N ratio and cation-exchange capacity. Resour Conserv Recycl 6(1991):45–60
Sommer S, Dahl P (1999) Nutrient and carbon balance during compost of deep litter. Journal of Agricultural Engineering and Research 74:142–153
Ostrem K (2004) Greening waste: Anaerobic digestion for treating the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. M.S. Thesis, Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University
Khalid A, Arshad M, Anjum M, Mahmood T, Dawson L (2011) The anaerobic digestion of solid organic waste. Waste Manag 31(2011):1737–1744
Lukehurst C, Frost P, Al Seadi T (2010) Utilization of digestate from biogas plants as bio-fertilizer. IEA Bioenergy June 2010
Kusch S, Shafer W, Kranert M (2012) Dry digestion of organic residues. In: Sunil Kumar (ed) Integrated waste management, vol 1. ISBN 978-953-307-469-6
Otoma S, Hoang H, Hong H, Miyazaki I, Diaz R (2013) A survey on municipal solid waste and residents’ awareness in Da Nang city, Vietnam. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 2013:1–8
World Bank (2012) The three cities sanitation project. Performance Assessment Report No 68226
Koné D, Dodane P (2008) Faecal Sludge Management—an approach to bridging infrastructure provision and human excreta management. International Conference on Water in the City and Urban Sanitation, Marina de Bercy, Paris XIIème, June 23-24, 2008. Available in Internet: http://www.eau-seine-normandie.fr/fileadmin/mediatheque/Votre_agence_de_leau/International/Atelier_assainissement/presentation_atelier3/presentation_Eawag.pdf. Last access: 30 Sep 2014
Nsiah K, Adam M (2001) Farming systems and farming inputs in and around Kumasi. In: Drechsel P, Kunze D (eds) Section 3.3 in Waste composting for urban and per-urban agriculture: Closing the rural-urban nutrient cycle in Sub-Saharan Africa. IWMI and FAO, CABI Publishing, New York
Hasanimehr M, Rad H, Babaee V, Baei M (2011) Use of municipal solid waste and waste water biosolids with co-composting process. World Appl Sci J 14:60–66
IPCC (2007) IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
Chiemchaisri C (2006) Inventory and mitigation measures for waste sector in Thailand. Available in Internet: http://www-gio.nies.go.jp/wgia/wg9/pdf/2-3_chart_chiemchaisri.pdf. Last access: 30 Sep 2014
Anh N, Sam N, Hai D, Dan N, Thanh N (2011) Landscape Analysis and Business Model Assessment in Fecal Sludge Management: Extraction and Transportation Models in Vietnam. Final Report. December 2011. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
RTI International (2010) Greenhouse gas emissions estimation methodologies for biogenic emissions from selected source categories: solid waste disposal, wastewater treatment, ethanol fermentation. Submitted to U.S. EPA December 14, 2010
Tuyen T, Michaelowa A (2004) CDM Baseline Construction for Vietnam National Electricity Grid. HWWA Discussion Paper, Hamburg Institute of International Economics
Econometrica (2011) Electricity-specific emission factors for grid electricity. Technical paper. Available in Internet: http://ecometrica.com/assets//Electricity-specific-emission-factors-for-grid-electricity.pdf. Last access: 2014/09/30
Norbu T, Visvanathan C, Basnayake B (2005) Pretreatment of municipal solid waste prior to landfilling. Waste Manag 25(2005):997–1003
Gray D (2008) Anaerobic Digestion of Food Waste. Final Report. East Bay Municipal Utility District, US-EPA Region 9
Wood S, Cowie A (2004) A review of greenhouse gas emission factors for fertilizer production. For IEA Bioenergy Task 38
Diaz R, Otoma S (2012) Effect of informal recycling on waste collection and transportation: the case of Chiclayo city in Peru. J Mater Cycles Waste Manage 14(4):341–350
Diaz R, Otoma S (2014) Cost–benefit analysis of waste reduction in developing countries: a simulation. J Mater Cycles Waste Manage 16(1):108–114
Pattharathanon T, Towprayoon S, Wangyao K (2012) Greenhouse gas emission and economic evaluation from municipal solid waste landfill in Thailand. 2nd Conference on Biotechnology and Environmental Management, Singapore 2012. IPCBEE vol 42 (2012)
Chong T, Matsufuji Y, Hassan M (2005) Implementation of the semi-aerobic landfill system (Fukuoka method) in developing countries: A Malaysia cost analysis. Waste Manag 25(2005):702–711
Jaramillo P, Matthews S (2005) Landfill-gas-to-energy projects: Analysis of net private and social benefits. Environ Sci Technol 39(19):7365–7373
Curry N, Pillay P (2012) Biogas prediction and design of a food waste to energy system for the urban environment. J Renewable Energ 41(2012):200–209
Evans T, Boor M, MacBrayne D (2007) Bio-fertilizer plant design: food waste to bio-fertilizer and biogas. 12th European bio-solids and organic resources conference 2007. Lowe, Horan (ed) Aqua Enviro, Manchester UK
Ookitown (2005) Introduction of Biomass Town Project in Ooki town. Available in Internet: http://www.maff.go.jp/j/biomass/b_town/council/1st/pdf/doc4_2.pdf. Last access: 30 Sep 2014
Murray A, Horvath A, Nelson K (2008) Hybrid Life-Cycle Environmental and Cost Inventory of sewage sludge treatment and end-use scenarios: A case study from China. Environ Sci Technol 42(9):3163–3169
European Union (2008) Guide to Cost-Benefit Analysis of Investment Projects. July 2008
Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Carbon (2013) Technical Update of the social cost of carbon for regulatory impact analysis—Under executive order 12866. United States Government May 2013
Chi N, Long P (2011) Solid waste management associated with the development of 3R initiatives: case study in major urban areas of Vietnam. J Mater Cycles Waste Manage 13(1):25–33
Marten A, Newbold S (2011) Estimating the Social Cost of Non-CO2 GHG Emissions: Methane and Nitrous Oxide. NCEE Working Paper Series Working Paper # 11-01 January, 2011. Available in Internet: http://yosemite.epa.gov/ee/epa/eed.nsf/ec2c5e0aaed27ec385256b330056025c/f7c9fc6133 698cc38525782b00556de1/$FILE/2011-01v2.pdf. Last access: 2015/01/15
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge anonymous reviewers whose comments and suggestions contributed to improve this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Otoma, S., Diaz, R. Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions and economic analysis of alternative treatments of solid waste from city markets in Vietnam. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 19, 70–87 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-015-0380-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-015-0380-0