Carbon Footprint of Municipal Solid Waste Management in Guelph City, Ontario

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-449
Author(s):  
Riham A. Mohsen ◽  
Bassim Abbassi ◽  
Animesh Dutta ◽  
David Gordon

More light is being shed continually on the environmental impacts of municipal solid waste due to the increasing amounts of waste generated and the related greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from MSW account for 20% of Canadian greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and accordingly, waste legislation in Ontario demands high waste recovery and a moving towards a circular economy. This study evaluates the current municipal solid waste management in the City of Guelph and assesses possible alternative scenarios based on the associated GHG emissions. Waste Reduction Model (WARM) that was developed by the US-EPA has been used to quantify the GHG emissions produced over the entire life cycle of the MSW management scenario. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to investigate the influence of some scenarios on the overall GHG emissions. It has been found that one ton of landfilled waste generates approximately 0.39 ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2Eq). It was also found that the current solid waste scenario has a saving of 36086 million ton of CO2Eq (MCO2Eq). However, the results showed that the scenario with enhanced waste-to-energy, reduction at source and recycling has resulted in a high avoided emissions (0.74 kg CO2Eq/kg MSW). The anaerobic Digestion scenario caused the lowest avoided emissions of 0.39 kg CO2Eq/kg MSW. The net avoided emissions for reduction at source scenario were found to be the same as that found by the current scenario (0.4 kg CO2Eq/kg MSW). The sensitivity analysis of both reduction at source and recycling rates show a linear inverse proportional relationship with total GHG emissions reduction.

2021 ◽  
pp. 0734242X2098392
Author(s):  
Paul Selvam Michel Devadoss ◽  
Agamuthu Pariatamby ◽  
Mehran Sanam Bhatti ◽  
Santha Chenayah ◽  
Fauziah Shahul Hamid

The studies on municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Pakistan and its impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are glaringly missing. Therefore, this study examines the effect of MSW management on GHG emissions in Pakistan and suggests the best suitable strategies for alleviating GHG emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 waste model (WM) was used to create inventory of GHG emissions from landfilling. The solid waste management GHG (SWM-GHG) calculator and strengths–weaknesses–opportunities–threat (SWOT) analyses were used as strategic planning tools to reduce GHG emissions by improving MSW management in Pakistan. The IPCC 2006 WM estimated 14,987,113 metric tonnes (Mt) carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-eq) of GHG emissions in 2016. The SWM-GHG calculator, on the other hand, estimated 23,319,370 Mt CO2-eq of GHG emissions from management of 30,764,000 Mt of MSW in 2016, which included 8% recycling, 2% composting, and 90% disposal in open dumps. To reduce GHG emissions, two strategies including recycling-focused and incineration-focused were analysed. The recycling approach can reduce more GHG emissions than incineration, as it can reduce 36% of GHG emissions (as compared to GHG emission in 2016) by recycling 23% of MSW, anaerobically digesting 10% of MSW, and disposing of 67% of MSW in sanitary landfills (with energy recovery). Moreover, the SWOT analysis suggested integration of the informal sector, adoption of anaerobic digestion and formulation of explicit MSW regulations for improving the current management of MSW which will also result in lower GHG emissions.


Author(s):  
Brian Bahor ◽  
Keith Weitz ◽  
Andrew Szurgot

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is internationally recognized for its potential to be both a source and mitigation technology for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Historically, GHG emission estimates have relied upon quantitative knowledge of various MSW components and their carbon contents, information normally presented in waste characterization studies. Aside from errors associated with such studies, existing data do not reflect changes over time or from location to location and are therefore limited in their utility for estimating GHG emissions and mitigation due to proposed projects. This paper presents an alternative approach to estimate GHG emissions and mitigation using the concept of a carbon balance, where key carbon quantities are determined from operational measurements at modern municipal waste combustors (MWCs).


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 5711
Author(s):  
Laith A. Hadidi ◽  
Ahmed Ghaithan ◽  
Awsan Mohammed ◽  
Khalaf Al-Ofi

The need for resilience and an agile waste management system in Saudi Arabia is vital to control safely the rapid growth of its municipal solid waste (MSW) with minimal environment toll. Similarly, the domestic energy production in Saudi Arabia is thriving and putting a tremendous pressure on its huge reserves of fossil oil. Waste to energy (WTE) plants provides a golden opportunity for Saudi Arabia; however, both challenges (MSW mitigation and energy production) are usually looked at in isolation. This paper at first explores the potential of expanding the WTE energy production in the eastern province in Saudi Arabia under two scenarios (complete mass burn with and without recycling). Secondly, this study analyzes the effect of 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) practices implementation in a residential camp (11,000 population) to influence the behavior of the camp’s citizens to reduce their average waste (kg/capita). The results of the 3R-WTE framework show a potential may reach 254 Megawatt (MW) of electricity by year 2030. The 3R system implementation in the camp reduced MSW production from 5,625 tons to 3000 tons of household waste every year, which is considered lower than what the surrounding communities to be produced in the same area.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document