Social life cycle analysis as a tool for sustainable management of illegal waste dumping in municipal services

Santos, Ana Carina; Mendes, Paula; Ribau Teixeira, Margarida

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/14414

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Authors

Santos, Ana Carina

Mendes, Paula

Ribau Teixeira, Margarida

Abstract(s)

Some wastes are illegally dumped on public/private areas, causing several aesthetic, environmental,economic and social negative impacts and representing a public hazard. These sites need to be treatedand managed and this task is often a responsibility of municipalities, representing high costs. However,there is a lack of strategies for the municipal management of these degraded areas that minimize costs,restore the ecological value of the area and eliminate the public hazard. This work proposes a conceptualmodel for the management of illegal dumping degraded areas by municipal services, based on a sociallife cycle assessment (SLCA). The model proposed is an open-participatory management tool whichsupplies the information needed for the waste management strategy for illegal waste deposit sites.Methods to evaluate and apply SLCA in this context are scarce. Therefore, SLCA is presented as a tool thatcan be applied to organisations in strategic analysis and structuring complex decision-making processesin order to identify optimisation potentials. It combines an environmental and a socio-economicassessment, contributing to the full assessment of products and services within the context of sustain-able development. The framework intends to promote the improvement of social conditions and thesocio-economic performance of a product throughout its life cycle for all the stakeholders involvedwithin the context of sustainable development. Illegal deposits sites of Construction and DemolitionWastes (CDW) in municipalities are used as a case study for model implementation. The outputs of thismodel are: i) understanding the real situation of the illegally deposited wastes; ii) management practicescomparing and integrating environmental, social, and economic objectives; iii) open-participatorymanagement; iv) orientations to strategy definition; v) use of the life-cycle product principle contrib-uting to a circular economy; and vi) assisting with municipalities performance.