Environmental assessment of the production of bio-plastics from urban bio-waste

The organic solid waste and sewage sludge management has important consequences on the overall environmental and economic performance of urban waste management systems. The RESURBIS is a Horizon 2020 project that proposes a biorefinery concept for the combined treatment of all the bio-waste produced in an urban area, mainly focusing on the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA). The objective of this study is to compare the global warming potential of the the business as usual (where organic solid waste is incinerated and sewage sludge is treated in an anaerobic digester and then incinerated) and the RESURBIS bio-refinery, using a consequential Life Cycle Assessment approach. The preliminary results show that the actual treatment of 1,000 kg of the considered bio-waste in the Great Copenhagen area causes 18 kg CO2-eq, while in the RESURBIS bio-refinery reduces this environmental burden to 8 kg CO2-eq. These preliminary results need to be confirmed by a more detailed environmental modelling.