Integrating ecosystem service losses into life cycle assessment on the treatment of 40 categories of hazardous waste: A China case study

Abstract

The 16th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention indicated the need to manage hazardous waste using a life cycle approach to control environmental impacts. However, the environmental impacts of hazardous waste treatment have not yet been adequately assessed, particularly regarding the lack of an evaluation framework for the impacts on ecosystem services. This study employs a life cycle assessment (LCA) framework integrating ecosystem service losses, to assess the environmental impacts of a case hazardous waste treatment plant in southwest China. The results show that in the lifecycle stages of hazardous waste treatment, the operation stage has the largest environmental impact. Among the different treatment processes, incineration has the largest environmental impact, while rigid landfilling has the lowest. Besides, the losses of the treatment of hazardous waste on ecosystem services are 77.12 yuan per ton, accounting for approximately 6.43% to 38.56% of the treatment costs. Sensitivity and uncertainty analysis demonstrate the robustness of the results. Finally, the implications including expanding the LCA boundaries of hazardous waste treatment, ecological compensation for ecosystem service losses, and co-regulations of multiple departments for hazardous waste treatment are proposed. This study proposes a new indicator for assessing the ecosystem service losses within the LCA of hazardous waste treatment and offers the government and the public a quantification of the ecological costs associated with hazardous waste treatment, provides the basis of lifecycle environmental impacts after product decommissioning for trade negotiations, and makes inventory data available for hazardous waste treatment processes during the whole lifecycle.