Resources, Conservation and Recycling 52 (2007) 103118

Evaluating waste management strategiesA case of metal-contaminated waste wood

J. Krook , A. M rtensson, M. Eklund a
Environmental Technology and Management, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Link ping University, SE-581 83 Link ping, Sweden o o Available online 9 May 2007

Abstract In Sweden recovered waste wood (RWW) is used for heat production, which reduces the share of waste that is landlled and recovers the energy content of the waste. However, this waste contains contaminated materials that pollute RWW with heavy metals, causing downstream environmental problems. The main objective of this study was to analyse how different upstream-oriented strategies to manage RWW, inuence the arising of environmental pressures downstream the waste management system. Today, the contaminated materials in RWW are handled together with the main waste ow. This upstream approach was compared with a separation strategy that removes contaminants from the main waste ow thereby handling these materials separately downstream the waste management system. An extended substance ow analysis (SFA) methodology that also includes resource issues was applied for the analysis. The results show that the upstream separation strategy exhibits potential environmental benets. However, to accurately prevent environmental pollution also in a long time perspective, upstream separation strategies must be combined with downstream measures aimed to immobilise the contaminants in by-products. Otherwise, such separation strategies, as the current handling of RWW, may cause temporal and spatial shifting of problems. To enable immobilising measures, however, upstream separation strategies are important since they decrease the volume problem. 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Waste management strategies; Heavy metals; Problem shifting; Substance ow analysis

Corresponding author. Tel.: +46 13 288903; fax: +46 13 281399. E-mail address: joakim.krook@liu.se (J. Krook).

0921-3449/$ see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2007.03.002

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1. Introduction Today, large amounts of material contaminated by hazardous substances have accumulated in the technosphere, posing environmental and health problems (Bergb ck et al., 2001; a Obernosterer and Brunner, 2001; van der Voet et al., 2000). Hence, to prevent dispersal of hazardous substances into the environment, it is important to develop strategies for managing these waste ows. A group of contaminants that is especially relevant in this respect is that of heavy metals (Reijnders, 2000; Ayres, 1997). These toxic substances have been frequently used in the technosphere and are non-degradable, which means that pollution of the environment will be permanent. To prevent emissions of hazardous substances during handling of waste ows, strategies can be implemented at different locations of the waste management system (Fig. 1). Downstream strategies are here characterised as measures taken from the treatment plant and further downstream the system, e.g. gas and water cleaning, dilution measures, monitoring and by-product management. These strategies have been commonly applied in the past, but are also frequently implemented today, to decrease environmental pollution. The focus of this study, however, is on the efforts taken before the waste arrives to the nal treatment plants, here called upstream strategies. Such strategies can be important since they inuence pre-conditions for further handling. There are two main upstream strategies to handle contaminated waste ows: contaminants can be handled together with the waste ow or removed and handled separately. Removing contaminants can be accomplished by, for instance, separation at the waste generation site, i.e. source separation (cf. Ruch et al., 1997; Thormark, 1995) or by waste separation technologies such as screening, air classiers and magnetic separators (cf. Schachermayer et al., 2000; Brunner and St mpi, 1993). a

Fig. 1. Characterisation of upstream and downstream strategies for abating emissions of hazardous substances during management of contaminated waste ows. The dotted line shows the main strategies focused on in this study.

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In this study the effects of different upstream strategies was analysed by studying the Swedish recovered waste wood (RWW) ow in detail. RWW mainly consists of construction and demolition waste wood, but also of other discarded products such as packaging material (e.g. wood pallets) and furniture. The waste is mainly used as an energy source for district heating plants, which reduces the waste volume and produces heat, thereby establishing an economic outlet for the waste material. In Sweden, the energy retrieved from RWW is in the order of magnitude of 1.52 TWh, which constitutes about 5% of the use of district heating (Krook et al., 2004). However, RWW contains contaminated materials that pollute the waste ow with heavy metals, causing downstream environmental and resource problems. It is not self-evident that upstream strategies decrease the environmental impact (cf. Raadschelders et al., 2003). For example, if the contaminated materials are removed from the studied waste ow, the question still remains: how to handle this highly polluted material? Handling contaminated materials separately from the studied waste ow might cause similar or other types of environmental impacts elsewhere in the economy, or else the problem can be temporarily solved but re-appear in the future. 1.1. Objective and scope This study takes a waste management perspective and compares different upstream strategies to manage waste ows contaminated with heavy metals. Swedish RWW ows in the year 2002 in the municipality of Norrk ping were assessed to exemplify the issues of this o topic. The main objective was to evaluate how different upstream strategies inuence the arising of pollution and resource problems downstream the waste management system.

2. The material and substance ows of Swedish RWW in Norrk ping o municipality The municipality of Norrk ping is located in the county of Osterg tland and covers o o 2 . In number of inhabitants, it is the seventh largest Swedish municipality, about 1500 km with approximately 120,000 citizens. H ndel thermal power plant (owned by Sydkraft a o AB) is located just outside the city of Norrk ping and constitutes the main heat producer. o This plant has several boilers using different fuels: RWW, coal, rubber, forest residues and municipal combustible waste. In 2002, H ndel plant generated about 1000 GWh of district a o heating, 300 GWh of electricity and 130 GWh of steam for industrial use. This study focuses on management of RWW originating from the Swedish economy. Apart from Swedish RWW, the thermal power plant at H ndel also uses large amounts of a o RWW (60,000 tonnes) imported from Europe however this ow is not included in the study. Approximately 8200 tonnes of RWW was generated in Norrk ping in 2002 (Fig. 2). o The main amount was combusted in the biofuel boiler at H ndel (7000 tonnes) and about a o 800 tonnes entered the municipal waste incinerator through mixed combustible waste. It was estimated that less than 400 tonnes of wood was landlled due to Swedish legislation forbidding the landlling of combustible waste. Moreover, H ndel thermal power plant used a o 30,000 tonnes of regional RWW from the counties of S rmland, Halland, V sterg tland, o a o Osterg tland and Sm land. Altogether, about 37,000 tonnes of Swedish RWW was energy o a

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Fig. 2. The approximate material ows (tonnes) of regional and local Swedish RWW in Norrk ping municipality o in 2002. a Weighed amounts at H ndel thermal power plant in Norrk ping municipality during 2002. This ow a o o constitutes the focus of the study. b Estimated amounts that are based on the distribution between combustion of RWW as chips in biofuel boilers, combustion in a municipal waste incinerator, landlling and reuse presented in The Swedish Environmental Protection and Agency (1996). It has been assumed that less than 5% of RWW was landlled in 2002 in comparison to 1015% in 1996. This is mainly due to the fact that Swedish legislation forbids the landlling of combustible waste.

recovered in the biofuel boiler, which generated about 110115 GWh, i.e. about 10% of the supply of district heating in Norrk ping. This ow of RWW generated 3500 tonnes of ash, o which was disposed of in different kinds of landlls. Swedish RWW generally contains elevated concentrations of arsenic, chromium, lead, copper, zinc, mercury, nickel and cadmium (Krook et al., 2004). It was assumed that the RWW used in the biofuel boiler at H ndel has similar heavy metal content. Thereby, the a o annual ow of 37,000 tonnes of RWW corresponds to a heavy metal ow of about 24 tonnes (Table 1). Krook et al. (2006) have estimated the contribution of heavy metal contamination from different pollution sources occurring in RWW. These pollution sources explain the main amounts of arsenic, chromium, copper, lead and zinc, but the sources for mercury, cadmium and nickel are less well understood. On the other hand, the elevated concentrations of mercury, nickel and cadmium are small in comparison to the other metals. The identied pollution sources comprise about 20 wt% of the total RWW ow (Krook et al., 2006), surface-treated wood (STW) 15%, industrial preservative-treated wood (IPTW) 4% and plastic waste (PW), iron and steel (GFS) and soil and concrete (SAC) about 1%.

3. Method Here, the method used to evaluate the environmental importance of different upstream strategies is presented. Firstly, we describe the characteristics of the current handling of

J. Krook et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 52 (2007) 103118 Table 1 The metal content in RWW and the total heavy metal ow due to the RWW ow of 37,000 tonnes Metal Concentration in RWWa (mg/kg) 53 60 33 59 440 0.06 3.5 0.5 Factor of increased concentration in RWWb 1800 960 480 80 50 40 40 10 Amount per year in Norrk pingc o (kg) 1960 2220 1220 2180 16280 2 130 20

107

Estimated contribution of pollution sources occurring in RWWd (kg) IPTW, 1960 IPTW, 1780; STW, 110; SAC, 40 STW, 1010; PW, 130; SAC, 60 IPTW, 1480; STW, 40; SAC, 70 STW, 11400; GFS, 2280 STW, 0.4; SAC, 0.2 SAC, 12 STW, 5; GFS, 1

As Cr Pb Cu Zn Hg Ni Cd

The contribution of heavy metals from identied pollution sources occurring in the RWW ow is also presented. See text for explanation. Note: IPTW, industrial preservative-treated wood; STW, surface-treated wood; PW, plastic waste; SAC, soil and concrete; GFS, iron and steel (mainly galvanised fastening systems). a Krook et al. (2004). b The factor of increased metal concentration in Swedish RWW is the ratio between the metal concentration in waste wood and the concentration in Swedish stem wood of pine and spruce. c The total metal ow due to the ow of 37,000 tonnes of RWW has been calculated by combining data from Fig. 1 and the median concentrations in Swedish RWW. d Krook et al. (2006).

RWW and of two developed scenarios involving an extended separation of contaminated materials. Secondly, the methodology used to evaluate the environmental consequences of applying different upstream strategies is presented. 3.1. Description of the reference case and the scenarios The reference case corresponds to the current handling of RWW, where contaminants are handled together with the main waste ow and treated in the biofuel boiler at H ndel a o (Table 2). In contrast, two scenarios were developed that remove the identied pollution
Table 2 Structure of the reference case and the two scenarios applied in this study Reference case Efciency of removing identied pollution sources (%) Combusted in the biofuel boiler at H ndel (tonnes) a o 0 37000; 29710 other; 5550 STW; 40 PW; 1430 IPTW; 40 GFS; 230 SAC Scenario I 50 33360; 29710 other; 2775 STW; 20 PW; 715 IPTW; 20 GFS; 115 SAC 2795; 2775 STW; 20 PW 715; 715 IPTW Scenario II 100 29710; 29710 other

Combusted in a municipal waste incinerator (tonnes) Combusted in a destruction incinerator (tonnes)

5590; 5550 STW; 40 PW 1430; 1430 IPTW

The reference case corresponds to the present handling of RWW, Scenario I assumes that identied pollution sources are removed with an efciency of 50% and Scenario II assumes an efciency of 100% in removing identied pollution sources.

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sources in RWW upstream the waste management system. In Scenarios I and II, contaminated materials were assumed to be removed from the RWW ow by an efciency of 50 and 100%, respectively. How the different waste materials would be managed downstream in the scenarios was based on the structure of the waste management system in Sweden. According to current legislation, it is forbidden to landll combustible waste. Furthermore, the stock of wood is the most energy-intensive material stock in Swedish buildings and more than 70% of its embodied energy can be recovered (Roth et al., 2002). Consequently, when wood material is discarded, it is important to recover the energy content of the waste (cf. Ayres and Ayres, 1996). There are also several factors that today counteract other recycling options, e.g. reuse and material recycling, such as the contamination of the waste (cf. Krook et al., 2004), present demolition technologies (cf. Thormark, 1995) and the absence of structured quality evaluation tools for wood waste (cf. Hansson, 1998). It was therefore assumed that energy recovery is today the most likely alternative for discarded wood. From 2002, Swedish legislation classies IPTW as hazardous that only can be treated in plants with permission to combust such waste. In the Scenarios, 7001400 tonnes of IPTW would be treated in the destruction incineration plant at SAKAB in the county of N rke. When removed from the RWW ow, STW and PW were estimated to be combusted a in municipal waste incinerators instead of in the biofuel boiler, and withdrawn GFS to be material recycled. The remaining amount of RWW (referred to as other in Table 2) would still be combusted in the biofuel boiler. In the reference case and Scenario I, the generated ashes would be landlled due to the elevated metal concentrations. However, in Scenario II, the generated slag from the biofuel boiler was assumed to be reused as ller material in earth construction. The probability of this assumption is further discussed during the presentation of the results. 3.2. Methodology of the environmental evaluation By applying a substance ow analysis (SFA) methodology (cf. van der Voet, 2002), the heavy metal ows through and from the technosphere for the reference case and Scenarios were followed. Environmental measures can lead to that the hazardous substances relocate and/or temporarily re-accumulate in the technosphere (e.g. Raadschelders et al., 2003). In addition, heavy metals are not biodegradable which means that if extracted from the lithosphere they will remain in the technosphere or environment for a long time. Therefore, the heavy metal ows for each of the strategies were interpreted within broad spatial and temporal system boundaries. One drawback of using SFA for evaluating different waste management strategies is the blindness for shifting of problems to outside of the studied substance ows (Bouman et al., 2000). Hence, the environmental assessment in this study also involves resource aspects by including issues regarding the net energy ow and management of generated by-products. The differences in the energy ow for each case have been analysed by including the efciency of energy recovery of the different combustion plants, energy savings through material recycling of removed iron/steel (mainly fastening systems) and energy savings in Scenario II by reusing the generated slag in earth construction. The energy ow due to transport and waste processing of RWW was not included in the energy analysis, since

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these were estimated to be of similar magnitude in all cases. The main amount of RWW used at H ndel is already transported long distances to Norrk ping from the southern parts a o o of Sweden. It is therefore not plausible that the removed contaminated materials will be transported longer distances to municipal waste incinerators and the destruction plant at SAKAB. However, the signicance of changed transport distances is further discussed in the interpretation of the results. From a resource perspective, reuse of by-products decrease the demand for landll space and replaces extraction of natural ller materials such as crushed rock and natural gravel. Evaluating the environmental compliance of the generated ashes was performed by calculating the concentrations and total ows of the studied metals and comparing these with the content in natural ller materials, e.g. crushed rock, natural gravel and moraine. To decrease the sources of error that origin from different elemental analysing techniques, the content of metals in natural materials was retrieved from a study (Research for a Low-Waste Ecocyclic and Society, 1999) that used the same dissolving and analysing methods as were used to characterise the metal content of RWW (Krook et al., 2004). It should, however, be mentioned that this methodology only generates a rough estimate for the quality of byproducts since it mainly considers total concentrations of hazardous substances (cf. Roth and Eklund, 2003; Mroueh et al., 2000). To address the total ow of metals and the concentrations in the ashes, several data sources have been applied: the concentration of heavy metals in Swedish RWW (Krook et al., 2004), the contribution of heavy metals from the identied pollution sources in RWW (Krook et al., 2006), the amount of generated slag and y ash from the biofuel boiler at H ndel in 2002, and the heavy metal distribution to air, water, slag, and y a o ash during treatment in the biofuel boiler at H ndel (Ortenvik, 1999), municipal waste a o incinerators (Bj rklund, 1998) and the destruction plant at SAKAB. It was not possio ble to get specic data on the distribution of heavy metals for the destruction plant at SAKAB. Instead, distribution data was taken from another incinerator plant at S ven s a a with permission to combust industrial preservative-treated wood (SWECO, 1999). It was assumed that the emissions to air and water for these two plants were of a similar order of magnitude. RWW has a caloric value of approximately 3.5 MWh per tonne and the energy recovery efciencies of the biofuel boiler at H ndel , waste incinerators and the destruction plant a o at SAKAB are about 85, 85 and 80% efcient, respectively. Furthermore, it was assumed that the recycled iron/steel in Scenarios I and II, i.e. 2040 tonnes (Krook et al., 2006), would replace virgin iron/steel corresponding to an energy saving of 3.5 MWh per tonne of recycled iron/steel (Levine et al., 1995). Reusing the slag in earth construction replaces virgin ller material. In Norrk ping municipality it is most likely that crushed rock is o replaced by the slag (cf. SGU, 2002). However, some of the slag might replace the use of lightweight ller materials such as light expanded clay aggregate (LECA), due to its low price. Two assumptions were applied for the energy savings accomplished by reusing slag in earth construction in Scenario II: the slag replaces crushed rock and 90% of the slag replaces crushed rock and 10% replaces LECA. Slag from RWW combustion at H ndel , a o crushed rock and LECA have densities of about 1.2, 1.9 and 0.5 tonnes/m3 , respectively. Hence, 1 tonne of slag used as ller material replaces about 1.5 tonne of crushed rock and 0.4 tonne of LECA.

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4. Results 4.1. The metal ow related to the RWW ow in Norrk ping municipality o Today, the identied pollution sources are handled together with the RWW and treated in the biofuel boiler at H ndel . This handling causes emissions of roughly 400 kg of metals, a o comprising 2% of the total metal ow (Fig. 3). Removing the identied contaminated materials from the waste ow and handling these materials separately downstream the current waste management system substantially decreases the emissions during energy recovery. In Scenarios I and II, the emissions of arsenic, chromium, zinc, lead and copper are decreased by 4080, 4080, 3060, 5095 and 3070%, respectively. Pollution sources for nickel, cadmium and mercury are less well understood. Thus, the upstream separation strategy applied in the scenarios probably does not remove these contaminants efciently from the waste combusted in the biofuel boiler. The emissions of cadmium decrease by 1020% and for nickel and mercury the emissions are approximately similar for both of the analysed upstream strategies. Altogether, the emissions of metal during energy recovery would decrease by about 40 and 70% for Scenarios I and II, respectively. For both of the studied upstream strategies the main ow of metals ends up in landlls, for which zinc constitutes the main amount. If the pollution sources are efciently separated from the RWW ow, as in Scenario II, roughly 50% of the metal ow is redirected from the biofuel boiler to municipal waste incinerators. Furthermore, in Scenarios I and II the arsenic, chromium, and copper ows are redirected from landlls to the hazardous waste storage at SAKAB. With an efcient removal of mainly IPTW, about 95, 80 and 70% of the total metal ows of arsenic, chromium and copper ends up at the storage for hazardous waste. In addition, reusing generated slag from the biofuel boiler in Scenario II would lead to 600 kg of the total metal ow being redirected from landlls to earth construction. For comparison, if the slag would be reused today about 4000 kg of the total metal ow ends up in earth construction. 4.2. Concentration of heavy metals in the generated ash from the biofuel boiler Although the y ash concentrations are substantially decreased in Scenario II, for most of the metals they are still much higher than the concentrations in natural materials (Table 3). Today, the arsenic, chromium, copper and lead concentrations in the slag are higher than in natural materials. For zinc, nickel, cadmium and mercury the concentrations in the slag are within, or even lower than, the concentrations in natural materials. Despite the removal of 50% of the identied contaminated materials in Scenario I, the concentrations in the slag of arsenic, chromium, copper and lead are still higher than in natural materials. However, high efciencies of removing contaminated materials lead to concentrations within the range of that in natural materials. 4.3. Total energy ow The main energy ow related to the ow of RWW in Norrk ping is due to energy recovery, o and thus the energy content of the wood material (Table 4). Energy savings accomplished

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Fig. 3. Total heavy metal ow in kg related to the ow of 37,000 tonnes of RWW. Black lines ( ) represent the metal ow for Scenario I; dotted lines ( case; grey lines ( metal ows related to SAC in RWW are not included.

) represent the metal ow of the present handling, reference

) represent the metal ow for Scenario II. For clarity, the relatively small 111

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Table 3 Calculated concentration of heavy metals in residual products (mg/kg dry matter) from the biofuel boiler at H ndel a o for the reference case (R. case) and Scenarios (I) and (II), respectively, assuming that 100% of the fuel comprised RWW, which was the case at H ndel in 2002 a o Metal Slag, R. case Slag, I Slag, II Fly ash, R. case Fly ash, I Fly ash, II Concentration in natural materialsa 4.368.7 39.8121 39.2224 15.992.7 6.459 8.760.3 0.080.7 0.0421

As Cr Zn Cu Pb Ni Cd Hg

140 520 120 290 150 30 0.03 0.02

80 330 70 200 90 30 0.03 0.02

0.1 80 20 90 2 30 0.03 0.02

3,910 1,670 46,640 3,480 2,180 110 60 6

2,140 1,040 29,560 2,380 1,210 120 50 5

2 260 8,830 1,050 30 120 50 5

Concentrations in natural materials (mg/kg dry matter) are also shown. The by-products generated at the biofuel boiler comprise roughly 80 and 90% of the total amounts of by-products in Scenarios I and II, respectively. a Range of the concentration of metals in rock, gravel and moraine (Research for a Low-Waste Ecocyclic and Society, 1999).

by recycling the removed amounts of iron/steel and reusing the ashes in earth construction are of minor importance. In Scenarios I and IIc , the net energy yield is slightly decreased (by 0.05%) compared to the reference case, due to lower energy recovery efciency of the destruction plant where IPTW is combusted. However, in Scenario IId an increase in the net energy yield emerges by replacing extraction of natural ller material and Leca with slag from the biofuel boiler. The larger energy savings in Scenario IId are due to the fact that 10% of the slag is assumed to replace LECA, which is quite an energy-intensive material (Svensk Leca, 2000). Altogether, the results show that the total energy yield is approximately the same for the reference case and the scenarios, apart from minor differences.
Table 4 Differences in the energy yield for the reference case and Scenarios I and II, respectively Case Energy recoverya (MWh) 110,080 109,950 109,820 109,820 Energy savings from recycling of iron/steelb (MWh) 70 140 140 Energy savings from reuse of ashes (MWh) 50 170 Total energy yield (MWh) 110,080 110,020 110,010 110,130

Reference case Scenario I Scenario IIc Scenario IId

The processes included are energy recovery, energy savings by recycling removed iron/steel in Scenarios I and II and energy savings by reusing the generated ashes in earth construction in Scenario II. a Calculated from the caloric value of RWW of 3.5 MWh per tonne and the energy recovery efciencies of the biofuel boiler, municipal waste incinerators and the destruction plant of 85, 85 and 80%, respectively. b Based on data presented in Levine et al. (1995). c The generated slag at the biofuel boiler is reused in earth construction and replaces the extraction of crushed rock. Energy savings by replacing crushed rock comes from Stripple (1995). d Ninety percent of the slag replaces crushed rock and 10% replaces light expanded clay aggregate (LECA) ller material. Energy savings through replacing LECA comes from Svensk Leca AB (2000).

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5. Interpretation of the results There are mainly two approaches for managing hazardous substances occurring in waste ows (cf. Guin e et al., 1999). The outow from the technosphere can be delayed by, for e example, recycling of by-products or applying end-of-pipe measures such as water and gas cleaning. Finally, the outow can be controlled, e.g. by immobilisation and disposal outside of the biosphere, to ensure that it does not reach sensitive environmental areas. By separating pollution sources and the main RWW ow upstream the waste management system, the emissions of heavy metals during energy recovery can be decreased. This effect could, however, also be achieved by implementing measures further downstream the waste management system. Both installation of additional gas and water cleaning at the biofuel boiler and landlling of the identied pollution sources would delay the outow. However, landlling would lead to that about 20% (21,000 MWh) less energy from the RWW ow would be recovered. From a resource perspective, such strategy would be problematic and the environmental benet achieved most doubtful (cf. Roth et al., 2002; Ayres and Ayres, 1996). In addition, Swedish legislation forbids landlling of combustible waste, so landlling of RWW is not seen as an appropriate waste management alternative. Regardless of upstream handling strategy (the current handling or the separation strategy), the main amount of heavy metal ends up in different kinds of landlls. Accordingly, in a longer time perspective, the pollution problem still remains for most of the studied metals (cf. van der Voet et al., 2000; Guin e et al., 1999; Flyhammar, 1997) (Table 5). However, for e arsenic, chromium, and copper the upstream separation strategy not only delays the outow but more importantly also increases the possibility of controlling the nal outow. The main ows of arsenic, chromium and copper are redirected from different types of landlls to a monitored storage of hazardous waste. This waste storage is designed and constructed to retain the hazardous substances, in comparison to landlls for which the operation and construction varies widely (cf. Flyhammar, 1997). In addition, the separation strategy thereby also decreases the number of sites for accumulation of these metals in the technosphere. It can be argued that improving the management of the arsenic ow related to RWW is of high environmental concern. This ow is, in contrast to the other studied metals, of a similar magnitude as other identied large arsenic ows in Sweden such as a contaminant in coal (Krook et al., 2004). If efciently implemented, the separation strategy redirects approximately 50% of the heavy metal ow from the biofuel boiler to municipal waste incinerators, mainly through surface treated wood. It could thereby be argued that the current lead and zinc emissions from energy recovery of RWW partially are abated at expense of an additional contamination of municipal waste incinerator ashes, preventing reuse of these by-products. However, today generated ashes from combustion of municipal solid waste are landlled. In addition, this waste ow already is polluted, especially of lead and zinc, thereby it is not, at present, likely that this shifting of problem would occur (cf. Bergb ck, 1998). However, if the management a of municipal solid waste is improved in the future and generated ashes are aimed for reuse, such shifting of problem may become a relevant environmental issue. From a heavy metal pollution perspective, the upstream separation strategy establishes important contributions to the current downstream focus on managing RWW. Firstly, it

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Table 5 Comparison between the reference case, where contaminated material is handled together with the main waste ow, and the scenarios, which correspond to an extensive separation of the polluted material and the waste ow, upstream the waste management system Environmental and resource issue Scenario I Short-term perspective Pollution perspective As, Cr and Cu Zn, Pb and Cd Hg Ni Total metal ow Resource perspective Reuse of by-products Decreased demand for landll space Replacing extraction of non-renewable resources Energy + + 0 0 ++ Long-term perspective + 0 0 0 + Scenario II Short-term perspective ++ ++ 0 0 +++ Long-term perspective ++ 0 0 ++

The evaluation is done based on the present waste management system in Sweden. A plus sign (+) indicates environmental advantages, whereas a minus sign () shows disadvantages compared to the reference case (0). See text for further explanations.

delays the outow by enabling energy recovery of the contaminated material in more sophisticated combustion plants thereby offering time to develop strategies to manage the polluted residue products (cf. Guin e et al., 1999). Secondly, the upstream separation strate egy enables to decrease the number of accumulation sites for some of the contaminants and to store these at a sophisticated waste plant thereby increasing the control of the outow. However, to accurately prevent environmental pollution, also in the long time perspective, upstream separation strategies must be combined with downstream measures aiming to immobilise (e.g. Park and Heo, 2002; Park, 2000) these substances. To enable such immobilising measures, upstream separation strategies are important since they decrease the volume problem. From a resource perspective, reuse of ashes is advantageous since it decreases the demand for landll space and extraction of non-renewable resources. However, an extensive reuse of such by-products may also limit the ability to control outows of heavy metals since they become re-dispersed back into the technosphere. In this study, we have showed that environmental compliance of the ashes generated during energy recovery of RWW can be substantially increased by the upstream separation strategy. In order to obtain by-products with heavy metal concentrations similar to those in natural materials, an efcient separation of the identied pollution sources is probably necessary. It should, however, be noted that this study assumes that the biofuel boiler uses solely RWW as fuel. In Sweden, plants using RWW sometimes dilute this fuel by other biofuel thereby decreasing, for instance, opera-

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tional problems (c.f. Andersson and Tullin, 1999). Other biofuels such as forest residues contain less heavy metal than RWW why the calculated concentrations in the ashes presented in this study shall be regarded as a worst-case scenario. When evaluating reuse of by-products it is important to not only consider concentrations but also to discuss the total metal ows and nal sinks (cf. Obernosterer and Brunner, 2001). At present, the generated slag from the biofuel boiler contains approximately 20% of the total metal ow in RWW. However, if the identied pollution sources were efciently separated, only a minor share of this ow (2%) would end up in earth constructions due to reuse of the slag. It must be stated that the evaluation of the environmental compliance of residue products accomplished in this study is restricted, i.e. only compares the concentration and total metal ows. To accomplish a full-mode investigation of the environmental compliance of residue products, several assessment levels probably must be taken into account (cf. Roth and Eklund, 2003; Mroueh et al., 2000). Further on, the heavy metal distribution between y ash and slag during combustion in different biofuel boilers varies depending on, for example, the combustion temperature, type of cleaning devices installed, type of metal and the geometry and construction of the boiler (Maartmann and Lundqvist, 1998). Consequently, the concentrations of heavy metals in ashes generated by different biofuel boilers vary. However, the key point of this study is that a removal of a few pollution sources upstream the waste ow, i.e. mainly IPTW and STW, enables to reuse the main amount of generated slag without risking to re-disperse substantial amounts of the heavy metal ow back into the technosphere. The energy analysis is comparative, which means that activities that are assumed to be approximately similar for the reference case and the scenarios are excluded, i.e. transport. Furthermore, it is extremely hard to estimate the transport distances since the biofuel boiler at H ndel uses RWW originating from several different areas of southern Sweden. However, a o if assuming that RWW generally is transported about 200 km and the transport distances of removed contaminated materials in Scenario II are either 100 km or 300 km, the difference in the energy ow with respect to transport becomes 130 MWh (NTM, 2003). Consequently, transportation only constitutes about 0.1% of the total energy ow, which can be regarded as negligible. The major energy ow is related to the energy recovery process, and thus, the energy content of the wood material. Hence, only minor differences occur between the reference case and the scenarios, since the energy content of the waste is recovered downstream the system. It can be concluded that an extended reuse of the ashes only briey inuences the total energy ow. Thus, in the system analysed, the main resource benets achieved by reusing the ashes in earth construction are not related to energy savings but to reducing the demand for landll space and extraction of non-renewable resources. This study has focused on the nal handling of RWW, assuming that the waste is energy recovered. However, in Sweden and other members of the European Union, there is an increased interest in accomplishing a more efcient use of resources. A prerequisite to increasing the resource efciency by, for instance, applying high quality waste management options, e.g. reuse or material recycling, is to establish strategies to manage the related substance ows (c.f Lindqvist, 2002; Reijnders, 2000). Upstream separation strate-

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gies increase the possibility of applying high quality waste management options to the main RWW ow in the future, without risking an extensive re-dispersion of hazardous substances back into the technosphere.

6. Conclusions The main conclusions from this study are summarised below: Implementing the upstream separation strategy to the current downstream focused management of RWW would decrease the emissions of heavy metal from energy recovery. However, a potential disadvantage with this strategy is that some of the substance ows become re-directed, and thereby, may inuence management of other waste ows in the future, e.g. municipal solid waste. For arsenic, chromium and copper, the upstream separation strategy also increases the control of the outows from the main amounts accumulated in by-products. At present, however, implementation of separation strategies would for most of the studied metals shift the pollution problem to the future. To accurately prevent environmental pollution also in the long time perspective, upstream separation strategies therefore must be combined with downstream measures, aiming to immobilise the hazardous substances. To enable such downstream measures, upstream separation strategies are important since they decrease the volume problem. From an energy perspective, as long as the energy content of the waste is recovered, the inuence of the studied upstream strategies has minor importance. The upstream separation strategy increases the environmental compliance of generated residue products from energy recovery. Furthermore, it enables application of high quality recycling options, e.g. material recycling, to the main waste ow without risking to re-disperse signicant amounts of hazardous substances back into the technosphere.

Acknowledgement Financial support from the Swedish Council for Environmental, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS) is gratefully acknowledged.

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