Towards Sustainable Processing Of Municipal Household Organic Waste: The Role Of Energy Mix Grids

The reduction and recovery of organic fraction of municipal solid waste is a major challenge for contemporary society. It requires the establishment of regional strategies with minimized environmental impact. This study employs life cycle assessment to evaluate the respective environmental performances of the current French system based on incineration, and those of alternative systems including (i) anaerobic digestion with composting and (ii) composting for biowaste treatment under different energy scenarios. The environmental impacts of Parisian biowaste are calculated by considering incineration technologies in the area, the French energy mix in 2022, the average European energy mix in 2022 and the projected French energy mix for 2030. The results show that the proportion of fossil-based sources in the energy mixes significantly influences the environmental performance of waste management systems. Energy mixes based in high-carbon fossil sources dependency tend to favour incineration-based processing systems. This is driven by the significant volume of credits allocated to the alternative energy produced from waste treatment. It is therefore essential for processing system design projects to account for planned changes in the energy mix in order to accurately assess the future impact of waste management strategies.