Water scarcity of recycling shattered glass due to the massive Beirut explosion

Abstract

After the massive explosion of the Beirut port, the streets were blanketed with broken glass which rained down from the crumbling buildings. In a circular area of about 6.5 square kilometers, all windows and façades were blown out and streets were littered with glass rubble. Hundreds of tons of broken glass have been collected for recycling following the Lebanese traditional method to recycle the glass. This process accounts for the collection of glass, the transportation of the collected glass from Beirut to the manufacturing plant in the north of Lebanon, the manufacturing process, as well as the packaging phase. This work aims at assessing the water scarcity through the estimation of the use of water resources, following the Available WAter Remaining (AWARE) methodology from the WULCA working group [1,2]. The water scarcity is computed in m3 world equivalent for each used process, by multiplying the quantity of water consumed by the AWARE factor specific to the country where the process takes place[3]. In line with this, the direct water consumption (e.g. irrigation, cooling, etc.) and the indirect water consumption (e.g. transport, power generation, etc.) are considered. Indirect water consumption is determined using the Ecoinvent (V3.7) database. Accordingly, the water scarcity, as the sum of water scarcity for all the considered life cycle processes, is then evaluated. The results of this study show that the manufacturing life cycle stage has the highest contribution; 89.6% of the total contribution. Consequently, in order to mitigate the water scarcity of the Lebanese traditional scenario to recycle the broken glass, the amount of electricity consumed within the blowing sub‐stage must be reduced since it has a contribution of 98.3% of the total contribution of the manufacturing life cycle stage.