Use of Statistical Entropy and Life Cycle Analysis to Evaluate Global Warming Potential of Waste Management Systems

The statistical entropy (SE) function has been applied to waste treatment systems to
account for dilution or concentration effects on metals. We later extended it to account
for carbon flows, especially in waste management systems involving thermal treatment.
Now, a simple lifecycle “net energy” metric – encompassing the “lost energy” that would
have been gained when high-calorific materials are landfilled rather than combusted with
energy recovery – is introduced to account for additional influxes of carbon when using
landfilling as the primary disposal method. When combining net energy calculations and
long terms effects of landfilling, waste to energy (WTE) becomes a more attractive
option for dealing with non-recycled municipal solid waste (MSW). A greenhouse gasforcing
factor is also introduced to account for the entropy generating effects of methane.
When incorporating forcing and lost energy, WTE performs notably better than landfills
with respect to entropy generation and carbon.