Evaluating a municipal waste management plan using

Environmental consequences of implementing Uppsalaʹs waste management plan have been analysed using , a computerized static substance flow model based on life cycle assessment methodology. Normalizing emissions from waste management to total emission loadings in the municipality was tested as a means to improve the evaluation. It was found that anaerobic digestion of biodegradable waste can reduce net environmental impact, while large-scale composting either increases environmental impact or gives less reduction than anaerobic digestion. In either case, metal contamination of digester sludge or compost may limit the feasibility of the systems. Increased materials recycling has the potential of reducing environmental impact, provided that processing of recycled materials causes equal or less environmental impact than extraction and processing of virgin raw materials. Normalization showed that all impact categories were of roughly equal importance. It was shown that easy accessible data published by a Swedish municipality were sufficient to do a relatively comprehensive normalization.