On Wednesday, February 7, Gonzalo Blanca and Alba Bala from ESCI-UPF presented to the rest of the partners, through videoconference, the preliminary results of the LCA of the current waste management system.
In the first place, it was explained how the inventory was carried out and the different calculations to obtain the initial waste stream in the LCA model. All the information to make up the inventory has been provided by the different project partners.
The functional unit used in this study is: “The management of tons of waste coming exclusively from Iberia flights, both Category 3 and Category 1 waste in 2016.”
In addition, the LCA model created in GaBi software was shown with all the items and processes that comprise it. This model facilitates the transition between the calculation of the impact for residues of Cat.1 and Cat. 3.
In this way, if we focus on the waste generated in the cabin of the flights of Iberia, as preliminary results, it has been obtained that the emissions derived from the management of 1,939t of waste is 716.5tCO2eq. The landfill phase is the one with the highest GHG emission due to the degradation of organic matter. On the other hand, the recycling of materials such as aluminum, paper and PET-type plastic contribute to obtaining a saving of CO2eq emissions already included in the overall result.