Comparative analysis between the impacts produced by centralized biowaste management – a hospitality sector case study in Brazil

Abstract

This article aims to evaluate the environmental impacts of different centralized biowaste management scenarios from the hospitality sector of the tourist city of João Pessoa, Brazil. To this end, a life cycle assessment was carried out, comparing different scenarios for the centralized treatment of biowaste based on territorial characteristics. The life cycle inventory was built using the Ecoinvent 3.0.1 database and Simapro software. The environmental impacts were assessed using the CML method, considering eight categories of impacts, such as global warming by greenhouse gases (GHG) and ozone layer depletion. The results show that the disposal of biowaste in João Pessoa's landfill (current management scenario) has significant environmental impacts when compared to diverting this waste to composting or anaerobic digestion, for example, in the global warming category, where the net impact of the landfill is 1.045 kg CO2 eq, while that of composting and anaerobic digestion is 0.18 and 0.17 kg CO2 eq, respectively. Furthermore, the comparison between centralized composting and anaerobic digestion indicates that composting is the scenario that produces the least negative environmental impacts for 62% of the categories analyzed. Therefore, this article points out that the current management of biowaste from the hotel sector in João Pessoa has several negative environmental impacts, making it necessary to implement actions that promote diverting biowaste flow from the landfill to other centralized treatment systems. It should be noted that an interdisciplinary analysis is needed to assess the social and economic aspects of the best option for treating and recovering organic waste.