Proposals for Classification and an Environmental Impact Evaluation Method for Eco-services: Case Study of Municipal Waste Treatment in Cement Production

Abstract

Various eco-services have been recently introduced in Japan as a proactive approach to create a sustainable society. These eco-services include a wide range of businesses and each eco-service has its own unique characteristics. It is necessary to systematically classify these eco-services into different categories to understand the development trend as well as to promote these eco-services with regard to sustainable development. In addition, overall environmental impacts and economic benefits of these eco-services need to be quantitatively evaluated using a life cycle approach to ensure the real benefits of eco-service business. Two different scenarios for a municipal waste treatment system by comparing landfill and recycling in cement production were used as a case study. The overall environmental impacts of these scenarios were quantitatively evaluated in this research by using a life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method known as “LIME”. Study results indicated that the use of municipal wastes in cement production could reduce overall life cycle impacts