Suchergebnisse

Manufacturing sectors and global supply chains play a crucial role in many of the most pressing environmental stresses and social concerns identified by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Responding to calls from the society, governments and global community, companies are adopting a variety of voluntary innovative practices and actions to improve the environmental and/or social management of their suppliers' activities. Nevertheless, addressing the myriad sustainability challenges facing our world today is not a simple task. Many methodologies have been developed that measure either social, economic or environmental performance of companies and supply chains but for decision making all three need to be integrated. A techno-economic assessment (TEA) combines process modelling and engineering design with an economic evaluation at early stages of technology development providing an ex-ante or prospective assessment with clear linkages to the (early) stages of technology development.

Governments and co-operations are aware of the fact that more sustainable consumption and production practices are required. Efforts are being made to produce less waste while increasing the recycling ratio. Concurrently, it is of importance to place landfilling in a sustainable context. The present paper discusses a novel concept where a landfill is no longer considered as a final solution but rather as a 'temporary storage place, awaiting future valorisation'. Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM) offers the opportunity to select the most suitable moment to recycle certain waste streams, depending for instance on the state of the technology. Recently, a transdisciplinary consortium was established. The first, embryonic elements of this new vision are presented in this paper. To make matters more tangible, the 'Closing the Circle' case-study is used to illustrate the ELFM concept. The economics are influenced by technical and society driven parameters. In order to successfully transitionise this novel view on waste management, a multi-actor approach is of paramount importance.