Assessing potential financial and environmental benefits of a newly developed waste traceability system in Flanders

Assessing potential financial and environmental benefits of a newly developed waste traceability system in Flanders

Debacker, Wim
De Regel, Sofie
Amara, Omar
Lam, Wai Chung
Bergemans, Jef
Broos, Kris
Vanden Eynde, Annelies

2017-06-21

Most of the mixed stony demolition waste within Flanders ends up as aggregates for foundation and road works. In order to recover waste for higher value applications, selective demolition and waste management practices need to be improved. The aim of this paper is to assess the potential environmental and financial benefits and drawbacks on selective demolition and waste management activities of a waste traceability system (Tracimat), currently developed within Flanders. The selective demolition and waste treatment in 2015 of an old milk factory in Flanders has been taken as a representative case-study. Business-as-usual demolition, sorting, transport and waste management activities were closely monitored and taken as reference for a virtual case-study in which the application of the Tracimat system was simulated. In addition, a local demand of separated masonry and concrete debris for high value recycling purposes has been assumed within the virtual case. Life cycle assessment and life cycle costing analysis were used to calculate environmental impacts and financial costs over the entire time span of both cases. Compared to the business-as-usual practice, the Tracimat supported case leads to an important decrease (50%) in operational waste treatment costs and to a significant decrease (7-14%) in potential impact related to some environmental categories. In order to further improve the environmental and financial profile of selective demolition and waste treatment practices in Flanders, measures decreasing the importance of heavy machinery and trucks, in addition to the use of the Tracimat system, need to be taken into account.

hotspot analysis
supply tracking
LCA
LCCA
selective demolition

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Conference proceedings

conference paper

(c) 2017 The Author(s)