Waste
Anything a process puts out that has no value -- or a negative value, meaning someone must be paid to take it away. The definition is economic, not physical: the…
Glossary Terms
Working definitions for the terms that recur across this project: the circular economy, water resource recovery and reuse, and the life cycle methods -- LCA, LCC and S-LCA -- that AWARE combines into one sustainability assessment. They are written for a general reader rather than for specialists.
Showing entries beginning with W.
W
Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)
A facility that removes contaminants from municipal or industrial wastewater before it is discharged or reused. Treatment is usually staged -- primary (settling), secondary (biological), and tertiary or advanced (disinfection,…
Water Circular Economy (WCE)
The application of circular economy principles to the water cycle, so that used water is treated as a resource -- for reuse, energy and nutrient recovery -- rather than as…
Water Footprint (ISO 14046)
An LCA-based assessment of the potential environmental impacts related to water, standardised in ISO 14046. It can include water scarcity (how much water is consumed, and where) and water degradation…
Water Resource Recovery and Reuse (WRR&R)
The recovery of water, and of the energy and materials it carries, from wastewater and other used water streams, and their use again for a beneficial purpose -- irrigation, industrial…
Water Scarcity Footprint
The part of a water footprint that addresses the quantity of water consumed, weighted by how scarce water is where it is consumed. A cubic metre used in a dry…
Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems Nexus
The interdependence of these four systems: treating and moving water needs energy, producing energy and food needs water, and all of them draw on and affect ecosystems. A decision in…
Definitions are written for this site in plain language. The selection of terms was checked against the Life Cycle Initiative terminology (UNEP), the ILCA Common Glossary and the SimaPro LCA glossary, and against ISO 14040/14044, ISO 14046, ISO 14075 and the UNEP Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment (2020).
