Presentation flick it or ship it

Flick It or Ship It Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Cigarette Waste Disposal Routes with a Focus on Toxicity Impacts Trisha Montalbo, PE INTERNATIONAL Christoph Koffler, PE INTERNATIONAL Takuma Ono, PE INTERNATIONAL Ernel Simpson, TerraCycle

Cigarette Waste

31 billion 293 billion

2011 SALES

65% littering rate in the US

Challenges and Concerns Marine Debris Animal Ingestion

Fire Hazard Roadside Litter

US CDC, http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/ Health Canada, http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hc-ps/tobac-tabac/index-eng.php Keep America Beautiful, http://www.kab.org

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Addressing the Problem of Cigarette Waste TerraCycle’s Cigarette Brigade

• Cellulose acetate fibers (from filters) is compounded with recycled polypropylene to produce plastic products • Paper and tobacco are composted to produce fertilizer TerraCycle, http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/cigarette-waste-brigade.html

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Evaluate Environmental Costs and Benefits Application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

QUESTION: How does recycling cigarette waste compare to alternative disposal routes?

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APPROACH: Apply LCA framework to quantify environmental performance Emphasize toxicity

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Life Cycle Assessment Product Systems Under Study

Recycling

Landfill

Scope Incineration

Littering

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Defining the LCA Gate-to-Grave System Boundaries Functional unit: The treatment of 1 kg of post-consumer cigarette butts disposed in Canada.

Production and use of cigarette

Transport to disposal / recycling site

Disposal / recycling

Energy / material recovery

Avoided burden

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Life Cycle Impact Methodologies TRACI 2.1, PED, and USEtox LCIA Impact Category

Abbrev.

Units

Acidification potential

AP

kg SO2 eq.

Eutrophication potential

EP

kg N eq.

Global warming potential

GWP

kg CO2 eq.

Ozone depletion potential

ODP

kg CFC 11 eq.

Smog formation potential

SFP

kg O3 eq.

Primary energy demand, non-renewable

PED

MJ

Freshwater eco-toxicity potential

ETP

CTUeco

Human toxicity potential, cancer

HTPC

CTUh

Human toxicity potential, non-cancer 9/22/2013

HTPNC

CTU

h Toxic Unit CTU: Comparative

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Life Cycle Inventory Model Tobacco and Filter Toxins Toxins found in the tobacco (based on literature)

and in the post-consumer filter (measured by TerraCycle)

Selected toxins defined / provided by: • Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 • Food and Drug Administration’s Indirect Food Additives standard • Data collected by Health Canada under the Tobacco Act

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• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Acrolein Ammonia Antimony Arsenic Barium Benzene Benzo(a)pyrene Cadmium Catechol Chromium Cresol DDT Formaldehyde

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Hydrogen cyanide Hydroquinone Isoprene Lead Mercury Methanol Nicotine NNK Phenol Resorcinol Selenium Styrene …

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Life Cycle Inventory Model Toxin Capture and Emissions Recycling

Landfill

• Cellulose acetate filter toxins trapped in recycled plastic

• Majority of toxins trapped in landfill

• Tobacco toxins leave system with compost

• Remainder emitted to soil (through leachate) or to wastewater

Incineration

Unmanaged Waste (litter)

• Organic toxins combusted

• Scenario 1: Emitted to soil

• Inorganic toxins emitted to atmosphere and/or scrubbed from flue gas

• Scenario 2: Emitted to water

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LCIA Results: Recycling Acidification Eutrophication Global Warming Ozone Depletion Smog Formation PED, Non-Renewable Freshwater Eco-toxicity Human Toxicity, Cancer Human Toxicity, Non-Cancer -40% -20% Reprocessing

Mfg. waste

0%

Compost

20%

40%

Transport

60%

80% 100%

Avoided burden

• Impact dominated by transport and packaging of cigarette waste • Credit from the avoided burden of fertilizer and recycled polypropylene production

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Primary Energy Demand, Non-Renewable Disposal System Impact Comparison

Unmanaged waste not associated with energy consumption

Unmanaged Waste Incineration Landfill Recycling 0

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0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 Global Warming Potential [kg CO2 eq.]

3.5

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Understanding Toxicity: USEtox™ Model 1)

Identify which toxins drive impact

2)

Compare toxicity performance

Obtain characterization factors from the USEtox model

• Represents improvement over other toxicity models • More appropriate for organic toxins than for inorganic toxins (e.g., heavy metals)

• Account for imprecision of characterization factors in interpretation • Human toxicity factors: Precision within 100 – 1,000 of other models • Eco-toxicity factors: Precision within 10 – 100 of other models

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Freshwater Eco-Toxicity Potential Contributing Toxins Landfill / Recycling

Unmanaged Waste (soil)

Other

Mercury (soil)

Nicotine (water)

Other

Selenium (soil)

Nicotine (soil)

Barium (soil)

Arsenic (soil)

Incineration Copper (air)

Unmanaged Waste (water) Other Arsenic (water)

Selenium (air)

Barium (water) Mercury (air)

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Selenium Other (water)

Nicotine (water)

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Freshwater Eco-toxicity Potential Disposal System Impact Comparison

Unmanaged Waste

Soil

Water

Incineration Landfill Recycling 0.01

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0.1 1 10 Freshwater Eco-toxicity Potential [CTUeco]

100

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Human Toxicity Potential, Cancer Contributing Toxins Landfill / Recycling

Unmanaged Waste (soil) Other

Pyridine (soil) Other NNK Vinyl (water) chloride (air) Pyridine Mercury (water) (air)

Incineration

Mercury (soil)

Unmanaged Waste (water) Other

Pyridine Other NNK (water) (water) Mercury (water)

Mercury (air)

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Nicotine (water)

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Human Toxicity Potential, Cancer Disposal System Impact Comparison

Water

Unmanaged Waste

Soil

Incineration Landfill Recycling 0.01

0.1

1

10

100

1,000

10,000

Human Toxicity Potential, Cancer [Ă—10-9 CTUh]

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Summary Interpretation and Conclusions • LCA enables environmental performance assessment, including analysis of freshwater eco-toxicity and human toxicity aspects

• Cigarette waste drives toxicity impact – in particular nicotine and mercury content of tobacco and filter

• Unmanaged waste not associated with energy consumption; however…

• Allows direct emission of toxins to environment • Leads to concerns such as aesthetics, marine debris, and fire hazards

• Managed waste reduces toxin emissions

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THANK YOU VERY MUCH! t.montalbo@pe-international.com

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