Modelling solid waste management systems, using advanced life cycle assessment (LCA) tools ; Μοντελοποίηση συστημάτων διαχείρισης αστικών στερεών απορριμμάτων χρησιμοποιώντας εξειδικευμένα εργαλεία ανάλυσης κύκλου ζωής (ΑΚΖ)

Summarization: The problems arising from environmental impacts associated with human activities have intensified in recent decades. Governments, particularly the European Union, have focused on creating, establishing, and implementing legal frameworks, directives, and guidelines. Their short-term goal is the minimization and, in the long term, the reversal of these negative environmental impacts. Directive 851/2018 (EU) introduces environmental protection and human health measures to manage urban solid waste. These measures aim to prevent or reduce waste production, mitigate the negative consequences of production and waste management, limit the overall impact of resource use, and enhance the waste management system efficiency. Simultaneously, the new climate law, Law No. 4936/2022, establishes measures and policies for the country's adaptation to climate change and ensures decarbonization by 2050. These initiatives play a crucial role in transitioning to a circular economy and ensuring the long-term competitiveness of the European Union. Therefore, exploring new waste management scenarios and modernizing existing systems must align with the new guidelines. Specifically, goals for reducing biowaste ending up in landfills and decreasing the consumption of natural resources necessitate revising and redesigning existing waste management systems. However, as the systems undergo modernization, the question arises about the environmental benefits of these upgrades and the tools that can evaluate this transition. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in managing solid waste represents a precious tool for understanding environmental impacts and the in-depth exploration of the processes that regulate such a system. Through this methodology, management plans ranging from simple to highly complex can be examined and analyzed. Indeed, as the boundaries of the studied system expand and the system becomes more complex, taking into account more information and data, the need for computational power increases correspondingly. ...