Abstract/Summary

Global waste generation is expanding rapidly in parallel with population expansion and urbanization, posing municipal solid waste management difficulties. This study examined the environmental impacts of domestic organic waste generated in the Dhaka North City Corporation in Bangladesh, a country with a fast-growing population and economy. No previous environmental life cycle assessment has been conducted in a decentralized waste-to-compost facility in Dhaka, nor has the environmental impact of manual informal labor be considered. Four major waste management scenarios were compared: conventional windrow composting (S1), proposed automated composting using an EP-1000 machine (S2), and existing practices of sanitary (S3) and unsanitary (S4) landfilling. The four scenarios' environmental impacts were assessed using OpenLCA software. Environmental Life cycle assessment (ELCA) of the four scenarios was conducted using OpenLCA software for their environmental impact. Results revealed that decentralized waste-to-compost process scenarios (S1 and S2) were lower than those of the conventional landfill scenarios (S3 and S4). The overall quantity of total yearly GWP100 from decentralized compost facility of S1 (1.14 million Mg CO2-eq Mg–1) and S2 (411 kg CO2-eq Mg–1) were multifold lower than emissions from conventional landfilling of S3 (~ 2.12 million Mg of CO2-eq Mg–1) and S4 (~ 3.87 million Mg of CO2-eq Mg–1) scenarios reflecting the environment-friendly outcome of the former than the latter scenarios. Similar trends of lesser quantities of FAETP, HTP, and TEP were noticed depicting the S1 and proposed S2 scenarios as better options than conventional landfill of S3 and S4 scenarios. In conclusion, the development of decentralized waste-to-compost facilities in Dhaka or other similar units across the globe can prove a better and more sustainable waste management strategy with a greater potential to mitigate adverse impacts of climate change and environmental pollution.