LIFE BIOBEST D7.1 Decision Support Web Tool (DSWT) assesses the performance of bio-waste management options in a specific area by using a set of indicators to evaluate three pillars of sustainability (environment, economy and social aspects).
The DSWT considers the impacts associated with all stages of the bio-waste management system, (i.e. bio-waste generation, source separation, collection from generation sources to the first waste facility, pre-treatment, treatment, final disposal, biobased products use as well as transportation between the different waste facilities). It accounts for the impacts related to emissions and resources consumed (e.g. electricity, fuel, machinery) within the bio-waste management system as well as the avoided productions of the goods (material and energy) substituted by the outputs generated from the bio-waste management system (i.e. bio-based products and energy), such as mineral fertilisers. The DSWT also considers the management of the micro- and macro-impurities that are thrown away together with the source separated bio-waste due to sorting errors.
The tool calculates and displays two types of results for each scenario: 1) The Mass Flow of the Scenario, which refers to the amounts of bio-waste, nutrients and macro-impurities that flow between the different bio-waste management stages. 2) The Assessment Results of the Scenario, which shows the values of the assessment criteria for the specific area to study and scenario, including: i) Climate Change, ii) Economic Cost, iii) Local Labour, iv) Space Requirement, v) Sorting Time, vi) Energy (thermal and electric) Recovery Indexes and vii) Transportation Intensity Indexes.
DSWT is meant to provide a first assessment of the scenarios modelled based on the data available in the DSWT and data introduced by the user. The target users of the tool are authorities, consulting firms and waste operators that can use the tool to simulate different bio-waste management scenarios and compare them. The results of its assessment can help identify the critical points of the current (or planned) bio-waste management system.
The DSWT is an upgraded version of the H2020 DECISIVE DSWT. Since LIFE BIOBEST leader, ENT, was the main developer of the H2020 DECISIVE DST (www.decisive2020.eu), the know-how accumulated during the development of the former tool was easily and efficiently used to build an updated version.
You can access the web tool by clicking the button below. The manual is available on the webpage after registering as a user.