**5. Bulky waste management in the circular economy—LCA results**

Considering the constantly growing consumption, and hence the mass of postconsumer waste, there arises a significant problem of waste management. This chapter focuses on bulky waste considering the significant problem of its management.

Bulky waste is a term to describe waste that is too large to fit in ordinary containers. This includes, among other things, furniture, carpets and mattresses. Improper management of bulky waste can pose a large environmental and logistic problem. The waste is atypical since it is largely made of a variety of materials, which have different composition, and thus each may have different effect on the environment and should be treated differently. Considering the above, the main and preferred options for bulky waste management include recycling and energy recovery.

*Elements of Bioeconomy*

sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). The global warming potential (GWP) is for each gas individually integrated into a single indicator expressed in CO2 equivalent units. This also indicates that, when there is a proper waste management, the greenhouse gas emission might be lower in the countries generating large amounts of waste, as compared to those producing low waste amounts, e.g., Denmark and Spain.

*Price changes of recyclates: plastic, paper and glass (data from Eurostat [17]).*

In the USA, the US Environmental Protection Agency noted that greenhouse gas emissions from waste landfills amounted to 115.7 Mt of carbon dioxide equivalent in

The way to reduce greenhouse gas emission and to efficiently use raw materials is the closed circuit waste management. One of the waste management methods is recycling. Apart from being beneficial to the environment, recycling delivers financial profits to waste management companies. In **Figure 3,** the trends are shown for prices per ton of paper, plastic and glass over the past 15 years. Despite a significant drop in prices in 2009, one can notice an upward price trend per ton of recycled waste.

**4. Environmental life cycle assessment in the circular economy**

final management of the waste generated [19–23].

Environmental life cycle assessment (environmental LCA) is defined as a methodology to identify and assess potential environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's (good's) life. The life cycle should be holistically understood: from extraction of raw materials necessary for the production of a given good through the production process, transportation and distribution to the

One of the most frequent definitions of environmental LCA, encountered in the subject literature, is the definition proposed by Fava et al. [24]; consistent with this definition, the environmental LCA is a method designed to assess environmental risks associated with the product system or activity, either directly, by identifying and quantifying the energy and materials used and the waste introduced into the environment, or indirectly, by evaluating the environmental impacts of such materials, energy and waste. The assessment embraces the whole lifespan of the product or activity, from the mining and mineral material processing, product manufacturing process, distribution, use, reuse, maintenance and recycling up to the final disposal and transportation. LCA directs the study of environmental impact of the product system to the area of the ecosystem, human health and the resources used [24].

**20**

2015 [18].

**Figure 3.**

Material and energy recycling issues have been taken as subjects of the European URBANREC project. The project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020. This project will demonstrate solutions for bulky waste management challenges. For the first step, technical solutions will be implemented in two representative European regions: Valencia (Spain) and Harelbeke-Flanders (Belgium). The results obtained will be spread out to other regions. In the first instance in Warsaw (Poland) and Izmir (Turkey), bulky waste management is evaluated in the course of the URBANREC project. The URBANREC project aims to develop and implement an eco-innovative and integral bulky waste management system and demonstrate its effectiveness in different regions. In URBANREC project, Northern, Mediterranean, Eastern and Southeastern areas in Europe are represented by Belgium, Spain, Poland and Turkey, which have very different urban waste recycling rates, from around a 60% in Belgium, 25–30% in Spain or 20% in Poland to less than 5% in Turkey. The URBANREC project aims to advance the separation and disassembling of bulky waste. The project will develop modern waste treatment technologies, such as fragmentation (3D cut). The waste treatments considered in the project include: rebounding and chemical glycolysis for the PUR materials, to prepare renewable adhesives, needle felt to obtain isolation panels from textiles, fibre reinforced composites from textiles, wood plastic composites and catalytic hydro-gasification with plasma for mixed hard plastics to obtain chemicals or fuel. Based on the results obtained, recommendations will be proposed for the new EU regulations as regards bulky waste.

The LCA focuses on demonstration of laminated cutting technology (fragmentation) for separated materials and products. The technology owner is the Ecofrag company.

In URBANREC project, a selection based on waste streams will be made in the civic amenity site located in Valencia to improve the quality of fractions obtained. Critical parameters for selection are defined depending on the waste stream. For mattresses, it is necessary to separate foams as latex, polyurethane or mixed foams. In textiles, different compositions can be obtained like cellulosic fibres—predominantly (cotton, viscose, flax and sisal) and thermoplastic material (PET, PP, PA, multicomponent PET with others, cellulose/thermoplastic blends). Hard plastics will be divided into polyolefin or non-polyolefin. Between the different technologies, laminated cutting technology for grinding will be selected and demonstrated in Valencia. This technique is developed by Ecofrag, and currently is employed as a novel system for fragmentation of PU foam, mixed textiles, mixed plastics, tyres and wood. The recovered fractions that cannot be reprocessed economically within an acceptable quality range (e.g. coated textiles, mix of different types of foams and wood) will be sent to the catalytic hydro-gasification process.

One of the main advantages of the fragmentation system includes lower CO2 emission due to the reduction of energetic consumption (40–50% in energetic cost), in view of the use of high pressure water as a cutting system. Regarding the fractions obtained, this technology combines two major advantages:


The LCA analysis focuses on the environmental assessment of grinding technology for bulky waste treatment with the use of water stream. As a functional unit, 1 Mg of bulky waste of various types (e.g. PU foam, mixed textiles, mixed plastics or tyres) was adopted. The input data for analysis were provided by the project partner—Ecofrag enterprise.

As a generally applied and common tool, the programme SimaPro 8.5.2.0, developed by Dutch PRé Consultants, was used for the LCA analysis. Within

**23**

**Figure 4.**

*(characterization).*

*Life Cycle Assessment as a Tool to Implement Sustainable Development in the Bioeconomy…*

the SimaPro programme, there is an option to select between several dedicated methods of the life cycle impact assessment. The methods vary from one to another, thus when selecting, it is necessary to specify priorities for a given LCA analysis. When selecting the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method and impact categories, it is important to take special account of the aim and extent of the analysis [19] and, additionally, of the following way of presenting the end results, way of weighting the individual impact categories, time frame indicated, geographical range, degree of accurateness of the method as well as impact

Bearing in mind the above, and after analysing the methods available in the SimaPro programme, the ReCiPe (mid-point and endpoint) method was considered

ReCiPe is the most recent and harmonized indicator approach available in the life cycle impact assessment. The primary objective of the ReCiPe method is to transform the long list of life cycle inventory results into a limited number of indicator scores. These indicator scores express the relative severity on an environ-

• Eighteen mid-point indicators (focused on single environmental problems, for

• Three endpoint indicators (showing the environmental impact on three higher aggregation levels, being the (1) effect on human health, (2) biodiversity and

mental impact category. In ReCiPe we determine indicators at two levels:

*Results of life cycle impact assessment method applied for ECOFRAG technology, used to treat latex mattresses and PU foam, for the individual impact categories within the framework of ReCiPe 2016 approach* 

example, climate change or acidification)

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84664*

categories included.

to be the most appropriate.

(3) resource scarcity)

*Life Cycle Assessment as a Tool to Implement Sustainable Development in the Bioeconomy… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84664*

the SimaPro programme, there is an option to select between several dedicated methods of the life cycle impact assessment. The methods vary from one to another, thus when selecting, it is necessary to specify priorities for a given LCA analysis. When selecting the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method and impact categories, it is important to take special account of the aim and extent of the analysis [19] and, additionally, of the following way of presenting the end results, way of weighting the individual impact categories, time frame indicated, geographical range, degree of accurateness of the method as well as impact categories included.

Bearing in mind the above, and after analysing the methods available in the SimaPro programme, the ReCiPe (mid-point and endpoint) method was considered to be the most appropriate.

ReCiPe is the most recent and harmonized indicator approach available in the life cycle impact assessment. The primary objective of the ReCiPe method is to transform the long list of life cycle inventory results into a limited number of indicator scores. These indicator scores express the relative severity on an environmental impact category. In ReCiPe we determine indicators at two levels:



#### **Figure 4.**

*Elements of Bioeconomy*

Material and energy recycling issues have been taken as subjects of the European URBANREC project. The project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020. This project will demonstrate solutions for bulky waste management challenges. For the first step, technical solutions will be implemented in two representative European regions: Valencia (Spain) and Harelbeke-Flanders (Belgium). The results obtained will be spread out to other regions. In the first instance in Warsaw (Poland) and Izmir (Turkey), bulky waste management is evaluated in the course of the URBANREC project. The URBANREC project aims to develop and implement an eco-innovative and integral bulky waste management system and demonstrate its effectiveness in different regions. In URBANREC project, Northern, Mediterranean, Eastern and Southeastern areas in Europe are represented by Belgium, Spain, Poland and Turkey, which have very different urban waste recycling rates, from around a 60% in Belgium, 25–30% in Spain or 20% in Poland to less than 5% in Turkey. The URBANREC project aims to advance the separation and disassembling of bulky waste. The project will develop modern waste treatment technologies, such as fragmentation (3D cut). The waste treatments considered in the project include: rebounding and chemical glycolysis for the PUR materials, to prepare renewable adhesives, needle felt to obtain isolation panels from textiles, fibre reinforced composites from textiles, wood plastic composites and catalytic hydro-gasification with plasma for mixed hard plastics to obtain chemicals or fuel. Based on the results obtained, recommendations will be proposed for the new EU regulations as regards bulky waste.

The LCA focuses on demonstration of laminated cutting technology (fragmentation)

for separated materials and products. The technology owner is the Ecofrag company. In URBANREC project, a selection based on waste streams will be made in the civic amenity site located in Valencia to improve the quality of fractions obtained. Critical parameters for selection are defined depending on the waste stream. For mattresses, it is necessary to separate foams as latex, polyurethane or mixed foams. In textiles, different compositions can be obtained like cellulosic fibres—predominantly (cotton, viscose, flax and sisal) and thermoplastic material (PET, PP, PA, multicomponent PET with others, cellulose/thermoplastic blends). Hard plastics will be divided into polyolefin or non-polyolefin. Between the different technologies, laminated cutting technology for grinding will be selected and demonstrated in Valencia. This technique is developed by Ecofrag, and currently is employed as a novel system for fragmentation of PU foam, mixed textiles, mixed plastics, tyres and wood. The recovered fractions that cannot be reprocessed economically within an acceptable quality range (e.g. coated textiles, mix of different types of foams and

One of the main advantages of the fragmentation system includes lower CO2 emission due to the reduction of energetic consumption (40–50% in energetic cost), in view of the use of high pressure water as a cutting system. Regarding the

• Greater flexibility in sizes and textures that makes easy to recycle obtained fractions

The LCA analysis focuses on the environmental assessment of grinding technology for bulky waste treatment with the use of water stream. As a functional unit, 1 Mg of bulky waste of various types (e.g. PU foam, mixed textiles, mixed plastics or tyres) was adopted. The input data for analysis were provided by the project

As a generally applied and common tool, the programme SimaPro 8.5.2.0, developed by Dutch PRé Consultants, was used for the LCA analysis. Within

wood) will be sent to the catalytic hydro-gasification process.

• Clean and differentiated components

partner—Ecofrag enterprise.

fractions obtained, this technology combines two major advantages:

**22**

*Results of life cycle impact assessment method applied for ECOFRAG technology, used to treat latex mattresses and PU foam, for the individual impact categories within the framework of ReCiPe 2016 approach (characterization).*

### *Elements of Bioeconomy*

Each method (mid-point, endpoint) contains factors according to the three cultural perspectives. These perspectives represent a set of choices on issues like time or expectations that proper management or future technology development can avoid future damages.


**25**

**Figure 6.**

*2016 method.*

*Life Cycle Assessment as a Tool to Implement Sustainable Development in the Bioeconomy…*

The results of LCIA analysis are illustrated in **Figures 4** and **5**.

into account processes/factors, whose impact is not lower than 0.56%.

application of Ecofrag technology for waste raw materials.

Considering the aim and extent of the analysis in question, the hierarchist variant was chosen, in view of the balanced time perspective, taking into account both

As it can be inferred from **Figure 4**, the largest environmental burden is linked with using diesel oil (DO) in electricity generators. Diesel oil combustion causes an increased emission of dust and greenhouse gases to the air that has consequences on increased global warming, ozone layer depletion, water eutrophication, acidification of the environment and increased dust pollution. The impact on water resources of Ecofrag technology is high, but the impact is reduced by the recircula-

The use of net power generates a significantly lower environmental effect. It should be emphasized that the technology examined has a net positive effect on the environment owing to the application of waste materials as substrates. Recirculation of used PU foam and mattresses contributes to avoidance of emission and generation of waste involved with their target production. Such results have been confirmed by the fragment of the material-energy balance. The Sankey chart is presented taking

In **Figure 6**, the results of LCA are given regarding the endpoints such as human health, ecosystem quality and depletion of natural resources, within the framework of the ReCiPe method applied. From the figure, it can be seen that the highest negative load is ascribed to the point 'nonrenewable resources'. This is closely related to the use of diesel oil (as a fossil energy carrier) for generating electricity necessary in the cutting process. On the other hand, a definitely positive impact is observed on human health and the quality of the ecosystem. This result is dictated by the

*The results of environmental life cycle assessment in relation to end-points within the framework of ReCiPe* 

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84664*

long- and short-term perspectives.

tion of water in the installation.
