Comparative environmental and economic assessment of production, use and recycling of aluminium cans: Bologna vs Copenhagen

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1 X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA V Convegno dell Associazione Rete Italiana LCA LIFE CYCLE THINKING, SOSTENIBILITÀ ED ECONOMIA CIRCOLARE Comparative environmental and economic assessment of production, use and recycling of aluminium cans: Bologna vs Copenhagen Raffaele Princigallo 1,2, Davide Visini 1,2, Alessandra Bonoli 2, Stig Irving Olsen 1, Monia Niero Division for Quantitative Sustainability Assessment (QSA), DTU Management Engineering 2 - Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna

2 EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy The value of products, materials, resources is maintained for as long as possible, and the generation of waste is minimised (COM final) RESOURCE EXTRACTION LINEAR ECONOMY CIRCULAR ECONOMY (CE) Key action areas: - Production - Consumption - Waste management - Secondary raw materials X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

3 Challenges in implementing the CE CE is based on a simple concept: «closing the loop» Not straightforward to identify HOW: at which level? from which perspective? CE is not only about resource scarcity and environmental impact, but also economic benefit (Lieder & Rashid J Clean Prod 115 (2016) 36 51) Circularity strategies should be assessed not only in terms of environmental impacts (LCA), but also including economic implications Environmental Life Cycle Costing (LCC): A Code of Practice by SETAC (Swarr et al., 2011) Life Cycle Costing summarizes all costs associated within the life cycle of a product that are directly covered by one, or more, of the actors in the product life cycle X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

4 Aluminium cans are good candidates for CE In 2012 half of all Al cans produced at EU level was destined for the brewing sector Al can represented the second main beer packaging format in 2012 at EU level Source: Berkhout et al. (2013) Al cans present a good potential for a closed product loop system MAP = Mixed Al packaging scrap (%Recycling Rate) UBC = Used Beverage Can scrap Source: Elaboration from Niero & Olsen (2016) Under review in Resour Conserv and Recycling X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

5 Aim of the study to compare the environmental (LCA) and economic (LCC) performances of the full life cycle of two aluminium beer can systems including purchasing, production and waste management, representative of two specific Italian (Bologna Metropolitan City Area) and Danish (Urban Area of Copenhagen) situations including three main perspectives: consumers, producers and waste management operators to identify challenges in closing the loop in different geographical areas and potential trade-offs in the integrated LCA-LCC analysis X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

6 System description: Bologna Bologna Metropolitan City Area = former Province of Bologna 55 municipalities, total population of inhabitants in 2015 (ISTAT, 2015) X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

7 System description: Copenhagen Urban Area of Copenhagen (Hovedstadsområdet in Danish) 10 areas, total population of in 2015 (Statistics Denmark, 2015) X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

8 Goal and scope definition LCA & LCC Goal: to quantify the environmental impacts and costs carried by different actors in the value chain of the two aluminium can systems Consumers (C) Waste management operators (WMO) Producers (P) Scope: - Function of the system = the delivery of beer to consumers in the Urban Area of Copenhagen and Bologna Metropolitan Area in 2013 by means of 33cl aluminium cans and the recovery of the Used Beverage Cans (UBC) assuming a closed loop system - Functional unit (FU) = delivery of 1 hl of beer and recovery of 303 units of 33cl aluminium cans in Bologna/Copenhagen in Exclusion for both LCA and LCC: beer production, refrigeration, bins production, R&D costs X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

9 System boundary - Bologna Consumers (C) Waste management operators (WMO) Producers (P) X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

10 System boundary - Copenhagen Consumers (C) Waste management operators (WMO) Producers (P) X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

11 Life Cycle Inventory overview 1/2 Persp ective C W M O LCA LCC [ /FU] Stage Bologna Copenhagen Bologna Copenhagen Purchasing Consumption Separated Collection Ecological Platform Selection and Compacting Incineration HERAmbien Landfill home-shop= 1 km (car, BO; bike, CPH) 4 cans purchased* home-bin= 200 m 10 cans thrown/travel bin- bin- collection ecological centre= 15 platf.=15 km km HERAmbien - te (2012) Pressley et al. (2015) + Transport= 600km Astrup et al. te (2013) (2013) Secondary data (ecoinvent) Can cost (estimated) Transport cost (diesel) Waste fee = f(m 2, n. persons) Unsorted and sorted (CiAl) collection fees Revenue (-) from electricity sale Can cost (estimated) Refund (-) from returned cans Unclaimed cans Waste fee = f(m 2, n. persons) Handling Fee (revenue) Reverse Vending Machine cost DRS Operating cost Incineration & landfill tax + revenue from energy recovery (-) * Sensitivity analysis (1,2,6,8,10 cans purchased) Primary data X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

12 Life Cycle Inventory overview 2/2 Pers pecti ve P R O D U C E R LCA LCC [ /FU] Stage Bologna Copenhagen Bologna Copenhagen Secondary Al Production in ITA + transport (401 Km) Production in GER + transport (563km) Primary Al Secondary data (ecoinvent) Environmental fee, Al, Electricity, Heat, Transport costs Body Prod. Lid Production Electricity, heat (Niero et al. 2016) + transport (460,5 Km) Electricity, heat (Niero et al. 2016) + transport (2 Km) Secondary Al, electricity, heat, transport costs Al, Electricity, Heat, Transport costs Al, Electricity, Heat, Transport costs Primary Al, Electricity, heat, transport costs, Producer/environmental fee (can manufacturer) Lacquering Lacquer (Niero et al. 2016) - - Beverage Filling Electricity, heat (Niero et al. 2016) + transport (276 km) Distribution Filling retailer (20 km) Data sources: Primary data Electricity, heat (Niero et al. 2016) + transport (202 km) Filling retailer (22 km) Empty Can Electricity, heat, transport costs - - Producer fee Empty Can Electricity, heat, transport costs E.g.: Metal price, Eurostat, HERA, CiAl, DRS X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

13 Results 1/2 Life Cycle Impact Assessment (ILCD recommended v.1.06, Hauschild et al. 2013) Life Cycle Costing (Environmental LCC - Swarr et al. 2011) Lower impact for Copenhagen, due to lower use of primary Al in can manufacturing for Copenhagen case, thanks to higher recycling rate for aluminium cans (89%) compared to Bologna (48,8%) Al can system show higher costs in Copenhagen than Bologna, due to high handling costs of the Reverse Vending Machines (RVM) at retailers and operating costs of the Danish Return System (DRS) X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

14 Results 2/2 LCA LCC A misalignment in the contribution to the life cycle environmental impacts and economic costs can be identified For Copenhagen better environmental performances mean higher costs for all actors in the value chain compared to Bologna, except consumers X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

15 Conclusions and perspectives The case of the comparative analysis of production, use & recycling of aluminium cans in Bologna and Copenhagen showed that trade offs exist: - best option from an environmental point of view also leads to higher costs - alignment of interests of different actors in the value chain Evaluation of circularity strategies should be performed from environmental life cycle perspective and including economic considerations To support the decision making process the recommendation is to combine the environmental (i.e. life cycle indicator scores) and economic criteria (i.e. environmental life cycle costs) with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methodology to allow the weighting of the different scores Take home message: CE (Closing the loop) = SIMPLE CONCEPT BUT TO BECOME OPERATIONAL TRADE-OFFS NEED TO BE HANDLED LIFE CYCLE PERSPECTIVE NEEDED! X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna

16 Acnowledgements & Contacts Thank you for your attention! Monia Niero, PhD QSA - Quantitative Sustainability Assessment Department of Management Engineering Technical University of Denmark Produktionstorvet Building 424, room Kgs. Lyngby X Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA Ravenna