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Integrated LCA and OPEN LCA-CML baseline analysis on environmental impact associated with the plastic packaging waste management system of Rubavu city Rwanda
Summary
Researchers used life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental impacts of different plastic bottle waste management pathways in Rwanda, where bottles currently end up in an open dumpsite. The study identifies which waste management changes would most reduce the plastic that eventually fragments into environmental microplastics.
Over the past few decades, the life cycle assessment (LCA) has been established as a critical tool for evaluating environmental issues of chemical processes and material cycles. Plastic bottles are the most used materials for packaging beverages and other liquids. In Rubavu, wasted plastic bottles end their lives in Rutagara. This is an open dumpsite that is home to all of the different types of generated waste of Rubavu city, and its management is alarming. This study analyses the impact on the environment associated with the existing plastic bottle waste pathways in Rubavu, Rwanda, from the cradle to the grave perspective until the other process in Nairobi Kenya, as an extended process. Questionnaires, Interviews, Literature: scientific papers, government reports and internet websites were used through this study to get both primary and secondary data. Open LCA CML (baseline) method was applied to analyze the environmental impacts caused by plastic bottles during their management, focusing on its parameters conspicuously: acidification potential, climate change (GWP100), depletion of abiotic resources (elements, ultimate reserves), depletion of abiotic resources (fossil fuels), eutrophication (generic), freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity( FAETP inf), human toxicity (HTP inf), marine aquatic ecotoxicity (MAETP inf), ozone layer depletion (ODP steady-state), photochemical oxidation (high NOx), terrestrial ecotoxicity (TETP inf). Two alternatives to these were also analysed: sanitary landfill, and recycling, described as scenarios 1 and 2. In this framework, the result of LCA shows that the use of landfill was found to have the highest adverse environmental effects, and this process has resulted in high global warming potential due to plastic bottle packaging waste decomposition effects as they release methane and ethylene, which contributes significantly to the greenhouse gases.