RESUMEN: Los objetivos de esta tesis son desarrollar un marco metodológico para determinar la configuración óptima de los sistemas integrados de gestión de residuos bajo una perspectiva del ciclo de vida, e investigar si la economía circular contribuye a la reducción del consumo de recursos y los impactos ambientales y al crecimiento económico.
El marco metodológico propuesto se aplicó a la gestión de residuos municipales orgánicos en la Comunidad Autónoma de Cantabria. El modelo del sistema se construyó combinando análisis de flujo de materiales y análisis de ciclo de vida (ambiental y económico). Se formuló un problema de optimización multi-objetivo para maximizar la circularidad de los nutrientes y minimizar el uso de recursos, los impactos ambientales y los costes de gestión de residuos.
Los resultados sugieren que mejorar la circularidad de los recursos no implica necesariamente una reducción de costes, del consumo de recursos o de la emisión de cargas ambientales.ABSTRACT: The objectives of this dissertation are twofold: to develop a methodological framework to select the optimal configuration of integrated waste management systems under a life cycle perspective, and to investigate whether adopting a circular economy is an effective measure to attain increased economic benefits and a reduction in resource consumption and environmental impacts.
The proposed framework – based the expansion of the boundaries of linear waste management systems – was applied to the management of municipal organic waste in the Spanish region of Cantabria. The system model was constructed combining material flow analysis, life cycle assessment and life cycle costing tools. A multi-objective optimization problem was formulated to maximize nutrient circularity and minimize resource use, environmental impacts and waste management costs.
The results suggest that improving resource circularity can lead to increased costs and does not necessarily entail a decrease in the consumption of natural resources or the emission of environmental burdens.The author has been the recipient of two predoctoral fellowships granted by the University of Cantabria and the Spanish Ministry of Education (code FPU 15/01771). Her visit to NCSU was funded by a predoctoral mobility scholarship awarded by the University of Cantabria and by the research project CTQ2016-76231-C2-1-R, whereas her research at Cornell University was sponsored by the FPU program (code EST18/00007). She gratefully acknowledges this financial support
