Environmental impact analysis of landfilling system in Irkutsk on basis of life cycle assessment method

Irkutsk is the center of Eastern Siberia with a population of about 600,000 people. At present, the waste management system of Irkutsk is represented by the processes of collection and disposal of MSW. Only 4% of all waste produced by the city are collected separately and transported for a recycling. Most of the wastes are concentrated on a landfill, located 10 km from the city center. The paper describes modeling of the current and alternative future scenarios for waste management in the Irkutsk. We applied the Life Cycle Assessment method using EASETECH. We focused on landfilling which completely dominates the waste management system and on greenhouse gas emissions quantified in terms of CO₂-equivalents. The study shows that the introduction of a modern landfill technology can significantly improve the global warming contribution from the waste management in Irkutsk. (paper)