Miljövinster vid minskad förbränning av hushållsavfall i Stockholms kommun : En systemanalys av energi och koldioxid för plastförpackningar, pappersförpackningar och matavfall

Sammanfattning: This report intends to investigate the environmental benefits from replacing the combustion of household waste with anaerobic digestion and recycling. The study includes plastic packaging, paper packaging and food waste within Stockholm. This will be done by looking at the flows of energy and carbon dioxide for the different processes. The flows will be analyzed in a system analysis, which in addition to the process includes the produced products and their profits as well as lost resources. This will provide a comprehensive picture and a more qualitative analysis and not only look at the net values for the processes. The study also consists of some limitations, for example it disregards from the waste transportations within the city and the comparisons are made on the processes net profits. The report describes the different waste disposal processes for the different categories of household waste. It became clear that both anaerobic digestion and recycling result in reduced energy consumption and emissions of carbon dioxide for all the studied categories of waste. Finally, it also showed that combustion with energy production have an ultimate application: waste which for different reasons are unsuitable for recycling. The conclusion is that combustion should be considered as a complementary and not a competing treatment.