Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of vermicomposting from paper cup waste and rain tree leaves with coffee ground and cow dung as bulking agents

Abstract

The aim of this research was 1) to study the comparative of the LCA of 5 treatment of vermicomposting products. 2) to study the economic performance and worthiness of vermicompost from paper cup waste and rain tree leaves in Chulalongkorn University. Comparative study of LCA of 5 treatments include T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5. Each treatment consists of 100, 95, 90, 85, 80% of paper cup waste and 0, 5, 10, 15, 20% of rain tree leaves respectively. Every treatment was added cow dung and coffee grounds to use as bulking agents. The impact assessment covered raw material acquisition, transportation and vermicomposting process by using SimaPro 8.0.5 to analyze the 4 environmental impacts. The results showed that all impacts were decreased from 0.001156 to 0.000938 kg Sb eq, 0.000615 to 0.000493 kg SO₂ eq, 0.000337 to 0.00027 kg PO₄³- eq, 0.146883 to 0.117976 kg CO₂ eq in terms of abiotic depletion, acidification, eutrophication and global warming respectively in T1 to T5 due to the paper cup waste must be cut by a paper shredder which consumed electricity. Furthermore, the economic feasibility of T5 of vermicomposting which has the least impact on the environment showed that the vermicomposting from solid waste in Chulalongkorn University could create value for solid waste which payback period was about 2 years and 11months.