Furness, M.; Bello-Mendoza, R.; Chamy Maggi, R. The Biofactory: Quantifying Life Cycle Sustainability Impacts of the Wastewater Circular Economy in Chile. Sustainability2023, 15, 16077.
Furness, M.; Bello-Mendoza, R.; Chamy Maggi, R. The Biofactory: Quantifying Life Cycle Sustainability Impacts of the Wastewater Circular Economy in Chile. Sustainability 2023, 15, 16077.
Furness, M.; Bello-Mendoza, R.; Chamy Maggi, R. The Biofactory: Quantifying Life Cycle Sustainability Impacts of the Wastewater Circular Economy in Chile. Sustainability2023, 15, 16077.
Furness, M.; Bello-Mendoza, R.; Chamy Maggi, R. The Biofactory: Quantifying Life Cycle Sustainability Impacts of the Wastewater Circular Economy in Chile. Sustainability 2023, 15, 16077.
Abstract
The wastewater circular economy (WW-CE) promises a solution to improve water and sanitation management worldwide. However, the transition from conventional to circular wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) requires facilitation to aid in decision makers understanding of integral sustainability impacts of alternative WW-CE configurations. This research implemented Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA), combining Life Cycle Assessment, Social Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing with a Multi-criteria Decision Making (MCDM) model to quantify environmental, socio-cultural, and economic impacts of conventional WWTPs with the WW-CE. Two real WWTPs in Chile have embraced the WW-CEs and adopting the title of Biofactories. These were considered as case studies, compared under three scenarios to demonstrate the sustainability trade-offs of the transition from no sanitation to conventional WWTPs and Biofactory WW-CE configurations. Results demonstrated that the transition to WW-CEs improved integral sustainability according to the LCSA model implemented in both WWPTs. This study highlights the urgent need to adopt sustainable decision-making models to not only improve sanitation coverage, but also improve sustainability performance of the sanitation industry across the globe.
Keywords
Wastewater; Circular Economy; Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment; Decision Making
Subject
Engineering, Civil Engineering
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
