About this Environmental Science article

What Is the Best End Use for Compost Derived from the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste? by Mojtaba Sardarmehni; James W. Levis; Morton A. Barlaz is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

There is increasing interest in diverting the organic fraction of municipal solid waste from landfills to biological treatment processes that result in compost. Due to variations in compost quality and available markets, it is not always possible for compost to be beneficially used on soil. In such cases, compost may be used as alternative daily cover (ADC) in landfills. The objective of this study is to compare the environmental impacts of using compost as a soil amendment, accounting for its beneficial substitutions for fertilizer and peat, to its use as ADC. Monte Carlo simulation and parametric sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate the effects of uncertainty in input values on the environmental performance. The ADC scenario outperforms the soil amendment scenario in terms of global warming potential, acidification, and eutrophication in ∼63, ∼77, and ∼100% of simulations, respectively, while the soil amendment scenario is better in terms of cumulative energy demand and abiotic resource depletion potential ∼94 and ∼96% of the time, respectively. Therefore, we recommend that using compost as ADC be considered, especially when site-specific factors such as feedstock cont

Author

Mojtaba Sardarmehni; James W. Levis; Morton A. Barlaz

Publisher

American Chemical Society; American Chemical Society (ACS); Publons; Test accounts (ISSN 0013-936X)

Published

2020

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)