Sinks as limited resources? A new indicator for evaluating anthropogenic material flows

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Environmental Chemistry
• Environmental Management

Background:

• Material use generates non-recyclable waste and emissions requiring safe disposal.
• Directing waste and emissions to sinks without adverse environmental or human health impacts is critical.
• Existing methods lack a comprehensive indicator for regional-scale substance flow assessment to sinks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and define a novel indicator for assessing substance flows to sinks on a regional scale.
• To quantify the environmentally acceptable mass share of substances within waste and emission streams.
• To provide a tool for informed decision-making in hazardous substance control and waste management.

Main Methods:

• Development of a new indicator for the environmentally acceptable mass share of substances in waste and emission flows.
• Substance flow analysis to track material movement.
• Application of a distant-to-target approach, adapted from the Ecological Scarcity Method 2006, for scoring.

Main Results:

• Case studies in Vienna (copper, lead) and Switzerland (PFOS) demonstrated the indicator's application.
• Vienna: 99% of copper flows acceptable, but 1% to urban soils/waters exceeded limits. Lead: 92% acceptable, 8% in landfills.
• Switzerland: 96% of PFOS flows acceptable; 4% lacked criteria but posed risks.

Conclusions:

• The developed indicator effectively quantifies environmentally acceptable substance flows to sinks.
• High-quality data and established standards are essential for accurate sink indicator calculations, especially for urban soils and receiving waters.
• The indicator serves as a robust basis for decisions in hazardous substance control and environmental management.