Life cycle assessment of glass in domestic waste

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a material and energy balance over a system, with some of the inputs and outputs used to assess environmental impact. We summarise a published method for LCA of the materials in domestic waste, that is the aggregated waste paper or glass, etc., which is derived from many different consumer products. We enhance the method to model transport of materials to recycling sites by consumers and collection and delivery to a transfer station. We use the method to show that the environmental impact of recycling glass is considerably less than disposal by landfill, even when the extra impact of consumer and local transport is included. We determine the recovery rate for recycling that minimises the overall energy consumption.