Recycling nutrients and reducing carbon emissions in the Baltic Sea Region: Sustainable or economically infeasible?
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Recycling nutrients and reducing carbon emissions in the Baltic Sea Region : Sustainable or economically infeasible? / Callesen, Gustav Marquard; Pedersen, Søren Marcus; Carolus, Johannes; Johannesdottir, Solveig; López, Jesica Murcia; Kärrman, Erik; Hjerppe, Turo; Barquet, Karina.
In: Environmental Management, Vol. 69, 2022, p. 213–225.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Recycling nutrients and reducing carbon emissions in the Baltic Sea Region
T2 - Sustainable or economically infeasible?
AU - Callesen, Gustav Marquard
AU - Pedersen, Søren Marcus
AU - Carolus, Johannes
AU - Johannesdottir, Solveig
AU - López, Jesica Murcia
AU - Kärrman, Erik
AU - Hjerppe, Turo
AU - Barquet, Karina
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Ecotechnologies have the potential to reduce the use of finite resources while providing a variety of co-benefits to society, though they often lack in market competitiveness. In this study, we investigate the sustainability of ecotechnologies for recovering carbon and nutrients, and demonstrate how a so-called “bottom-up” approach can serve as a decision-making instrument. Based on three case study catchments with a focus on domestic wastewater in Sweden and Poland, and on manure, grass and blackwater substrates in Finland, we apply a cost–benefit analysis (CBA) on system alternatives derived from a participatory process. After drawing on an initial systematic mapping of relevant ecotechnologies, the scope of the CBA is determined by stakeholder suggestions, namely in terms of the considered assessment criteria, the physical impacts and the utilised data. Thus, this CBA is rooted in a localised consideration of ecotechnologies rather than a centralised governmental approach to systems boundaries. The key advantage of applying such a bottom-up approach is that it has gone through a robust participatory selection process by local stakeholders, which provides more legitimacy to the decisions reached compared with traditional feasibility studies. Despite considering the revenues of the recovered products as well as the provision of the non-market goods CO2 mitigation and reduced eutrophication, findings from this study indicate that the benefits of the considered ecotechnologies are often outweighed by their costs. Only anaerobic digestion of agricultural wastes appears to be economically feasible under the current conditions, highlighting that further efforts and incentives may be required to mainstream ecotechnologies.
AB - Ecotechnologies have the potential to reduce the use of finite resources while providing a variety of co-benefits to society, though they often lack in market competitiveness. In this study, we investigate the sustainability of ecotechnologies for recovering carbon and nutrients, and demonstrate how a so-called “bottom-up” approach can serve as a decision-making instrument. Based on three case study catchments with a focus on domestic wastewater in Sweden and Poland, and on manure, grass and blackwater substrates in Finland, we apply a cost–benefit analysis (CBA) on system alternatives derived from a participatory process. After drawing on an initial systematic mapping of relevant ecotechnologies, the scope of the CBA is determined by stakeholder suggestions, namely in terms of the considered assessment criteria, the physical impacts and the utilised data. Thus, this CBA is rooted in a localised consideration of ecotechnologies rather than a centralised governmental approach to systems boundaries. The key advantage of applying such a bottom-up approach is that it has gone through a robust participatory selection process by local stakeholders, which provides more legitimacy to the decisions reached compared with traditional feasibility studies. Despite considering the revenues of the recovered products as well as the provision of the non-market goods CO2 mitigation and reduced eutrophication, findings from this study indicate that the benefits of the considered ecotechnologies are often outweighed by their costs. Only anaerobic digestion of agricultural wastes appears to be economically feasible under the current conditions, highlighting that further efforts and incentives may be required to mainstream ecotechnologies.
KW - Baltic Sea Region
KW - Bottom-up
KW - Circular economy
KW - Cost–benefit analysis
KW - Ecotechnologies
KW - Nutrient recovery
U2 - 10.1007/s00267-021-01537-z
DO - 10.1007/s00267-021-01537-z
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 34542659
AN - SCOPUS:85115160906
VL - 69
SP - 213
EP - 225
JO - Environmental Management
JF - Environmental Management
SN - 0364-152X
ER -
ID: 280747334