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Bulk mineral waste materials are one of the largest waste streams worldwide and their management systems can differ greatly depending on regional conditions. Due to this variation, the decision-making context is of particular importance when studying environmental impacts of mineral waste management systems with life cycle assessment (LCA). We follow the premise that LCA results—if applied in practice—are always used in an improvement (i.e., decision-making) context. But how suitable are existing LCA studies on bulk mineral waste management for decision support? To answer this question, we quantitatively and qualitatively assess 57 peer-reviewed bulk mineral waste management LCA studies against 47 criteria. The results show inadequacies regarding decision support along all LCA phases. Common shortcomings are insufficient attention to the specific decision-making context, lack of a consequential perspective, liberal use of allocation and limited justification thereof, missing justifications for excluded impact categories, inadequately discussed limitations, and incomplete documentation. We identified the following significant issues for bulk mineral waste management systems: transportation, the potential leaching of heavy metals, second-order substitution effects, and the choice to include or exclude avoided landfilling and embodied impacts. When applicable, we provide recommendations for improvement and point to best practice examples.
Christian Dierks; Tabea Hagedorn; Alessio Campitelli; Winfried Bulach; Vanessa Zeller. Are LCA Studies on Bulk Mineral Waste Management Suitable for Decision Support? A Critical Review. Sustainability 2021, 13, 4686 .
AMA StyleChristian Dierks, Tabea Hagedorn, Alessio Campitelli, Winfried Bulach, Vanessa Zeller. Are LCA Studies on Bulk Mineral Waste Management Suitable for Decision Support? A Critical Review. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (9):4686.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChristian Dierks; Tabea Hagedorn; Alessio Campitelli; Winfried Bulach; Vanessa Zeller. 2021. "Are LCA Studies on Bulk Mineral Waste Management Suitable for Decision Support? A Critical Review." Sustainability 13, no. 9: 4686.
Characterizing consumers in terms of their propensity to practice sustainable consumption represents an interesting research challenge in which a crucial role is played by the questionnaire in terms of its structure and classification criteria. Various classification rules have been proposed in the literature, which can be used to identify consumer types and signify their propensity to practice the principles of sustainable development in daily life. In this paper, we based our approach in designing a classification tool on a combination of two elements: the concept of voluntary simplicity as a pillar for consumer characteristics and the idea of assessing consumers by using filters, in a modified form introducing many new aspects of life-cycle thinking. The tool proposed provides insight into the relationship between the consumer’s typology and behavior during purchasing decisions in daily life. The main function of the proposed tool is to assign respondents to one of the proposed consumer types distinguished and characterized in terms of many aspects of life cycle thinking. A pilot survey has been performed in order to verify the proposed tool, and the survey results have been presented in the paper, as well.
Anna Lewandowska; Joanna Witczak; Pasquale Giungato; Christian Dierks; Przemyslaw Kurczewski; Katarzyna Pawlak-Lemanska. Inclusion of Life Cycle Thinking in a Sustainability-Oriented Consumer’s Typology: A Proposed Methodology and an Assessment Tool. Sustainability 2018, 10, 1826 .
AMA StyleAnna Lewandowska, Joanna Witczak, Pasquale Giungato, Christian Dierks, Przemyslaw Kurczewski, Katarzyna Pawlak-Lemanska. Inclusion of Life Cycle Thinking in a Sustainability-Oriented Consumer’s Typology: A Proposed Methodology and an Assessment Tool. Sustainability. 2018; 10 (6):1826.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAnna Lewandowska; Joanna Witczak; Pasquale Giungato; Christian Dierks; Przemyslaw Kurczewski; Katarzyna Pawlak-Lemanska. 2018. "Inclusion of Life Cycle Thinking in a Sustainability-Oriented Consumer’s Typology: A Proposed Methodology and an Assessment Tool." Sustainability 10, no. 6: 1826.