The results showed that SS demonstrated substantially higher impact in total ( Pt) and across each of the endpoint categories, most notably human health ( Pt). Further investigations demonstrated that this was largely fed by the respiratory inorganics midpoint category that accounted for 50 % of the total impact ( Pt). | Environmental Advances 4 2021 100065 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Environmental Advances journal homepage locate envadv Life cycle analysis approach to comparing environmental impacts of alternative materials used in the construction of small wastewater treatment plants David Pryce a Fayyaz Ali Memon a Zoran Kapelan a b a College of Environment Mathematics and Physical Sciences University of Exeter EX4 4QF United Kingdom b Department of Water Management Delft University of Technology Stevinweg 1 2628CN Delft Netherlands a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Keywords With the aim of reducing the environmental burden of decentralized wastewater treatment plants in India this LCA project investigated five primary materials stainless steel SS mild steel MS glass fibre reinforced polymer Sustainability GFRP high density polyethylene HDPE and reinforced concrete cement RCC in terms of the relative envi- Sewage treatment plant ronmental impact that each would incur across 13 midpoint and 4 endpoint impact categories during the early life stages. The results showed that SS demonstrated substantially higher impact in total Pt and across each of the endpoint categories most notably human health Pt . Further investigations demonstrated that this was largely fed by the respiratory inorganics midpoint category that accounted for 50 of the total impact Pt while global warming Pt non-renewable energy Pt and terrestrial ecotoxicity Pt were the only other considerable impacts. GFRP incurred the second greatest impact overall Pt while MS RCC and HDPE followed with Pt Pt and Pt respectively. HDPE afforded the greatest efficiency in all midpoint categories except carcinogens where RCC incurred the least environmental cost. Results were then compared with previous work and likely causal factors highlighted. Further study is recommended to investigate the longevity of the alternative materials in a wastewater .
