Eutrophication impact potential of solid waste management options in harare

Six municipal solid waste management options (A1–A6) in Harare were developed and analyzed for their eutrophication impact potentials under the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. All the options started with waste collection and transportation to a centralized waste treatment centre where a combination of various municipal solid waste management and treatment methods were considered under the different options. Results show that landfilling and material recovery for reuse and recyle are the only MSW management processes that contributes to negative eutrophication potential giving options that had landfilling (A1, A4 and A6) an overall edge. The doubling of recycling rate under A5 and increasing it to atleast 25% under A6 result in below zero eutrophication impact potentials. Results reveal that anaerobic digestion and incineration contribute to increased eutrophication potential under all the options they were considered hence need for further assessments considering other impact categories to determine the most sustainable option.