CFE 020904 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

SOLlD WASTE ocal government's solid waste consists primarily of office We characterized the composition of cities ' waste using informat waste such as paper, and waste collected in receptacles at from the California Integrated Waste Management Board . Using parks . Another source is greenwaste —grass, leaves , and efficients in the ICLEI software, we converted cities ' solid wart( wood—from parks and other city landscapes . Too little data GHG emissions . We adjusted these coefficients to reflect that 70 per( was available to make credible estimates for cities' greenwaste, al - of the methane coming off the landfill used by the cities is convei though we made preliminary estimates and determined that green - to electricity. Results of our calculations are shown in the table bel waste is probably a very small part of cities' overall GHG emissions . It may appear that sending solid waste to the landfill helps red The underlying protocol for converting solid waste to GHG emis- greenhouse gas emissions . In fact, this is an artifact of the GHG sions is the most complex of the municipal sectors studied . ICLEI 's counting system we used . Considerably more GHG is emitter inventory approach purposely considers municipalities ' GHG con - manufacturing most solid goods than the reduction from landfill tribution of landfilling the solid waste stream only, and not the GHG For instance, manufacturing a ton of office paper generates 31 produced in manufacturing or transporting the material . Landfilling eCO2 . Landfilling that ton of office paper will only offset about can result in a positive or negative contribution to a city 's inven - tons of the emissions from manufacture, depending again on tory, depending primarily on how the landfill is operated . When landfill operation . However, cities do not count the emissions of r materials containing carbon, such as paper, are buried in a landfill , ufacture in their inventory; this accrues to the manufacturer. TI it does not release green- done to avoi part of the carbon is sequestered , meaning d double counting of the manufacturing emissions v house gas . The remainder of the carbon decomposes to methane, an economy-wide GHG inventory is made . Therefore, the neg a potent greenhouse gas, and carbon dioxide . If the methane were values shown above need to be coupled with the emissions of r is - ufacture to provide a complete picture of the impact of solid w allowed to escape to the atmosphere , the net greenhouse em sions from landfilling would be positive and substantial . However, With ICLEI 's system , the emissions of manufacture are accounte an estimated 70 percent of the Sonoma County landfill 's methane later, when cities take measures to reduce their tons of landfilled is captured and combusted . Toe net effect, according to ICLEI 's ap- waste, by either using less or diverting more to recycling . Either a proach , is that the solid waste sent to the landfill is a reduction , or will then give cities credit for reducing the emissions of manufa< negative contribution, to each city's GHG emissions inventorye and reduce their overall GHG emissions accordingly. To calculate the amount of GHG produced by cities ' solid waste The solid waste GHG reduction strategy of using less , also c streams, we need to know how much and what type of solid waste source reduction , saves the purchase cost of supplies in additi each city produces from its operations . But this data was mostly un - avoiding GHG emissions associated with manufacture and 1 available . Sonoma had lump sum tonnage for all buildings. Rohnert port . Recycling and buying recycled - content items also hell: Park had the most detailed solid waste information , so we used it to cause the manufacture of most solids from recycled stock pros compute a ratio of the amount of waste generated per square foot of fewer GHGs that from virgin raw materials . Any city that decic facility. We applied this ratio to the other cities to estimate the vol - include solid waste reduction and recycling as part of its overall ume of solid waste each produces . We used the same approach to reduction strategy should first establish a measurement metF estimate the amount of refuse from city parks, but this method pro- ogy and a more precise baseline than determined here . Mei duced unreasonably large GHG volumes, so we excluded park re- ments should include both weight and composition of the aft fuse from this analysis . Because we had only 2003 data, we used it solid waste streams . Better measurement means better data for the two base years for our study, FY 2000 -01 and FY 2001 -02 . fectively tracking progress . Estimates of solid waste generated by cities and associated GHG emissions in tons eCO2 Cloverdale Cotati Healdsburg Petaluma Rohnert Park Sebastopol Sonoma Wir Buildings Sq . ft . 16 , 100 20 ,000 74 , 780 479, 446 215 , 879 341390 79 , 507 4 Refuse tons / r 46 58 216 1382 622 99 55 GHG , tons - 11 = 14 = 50 - 321 - 145 - 23 - 13 eCO2 /yr Full report on Solid Waste by Edward C, Myers, Provimetrics, posted online at www. skymetrics .us 12