Evaluation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Management: Case Study of Lampang Municipality, Thailand

Abstract

The issue of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from municipal solid waste (MSW) is important in the context of climate change. Reduction of GHGs from waste disposal systems is one of the management strategies forming part of Thailand’s National Economic and Social Development Plan. This project evaluated emissions from a municipal solid waste system covering transportation and disposal in Lampang Municipality, northern Thailand. GHG emissions from transportation were estimated by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) based on the travel distance of the vehicles, using a vehicle emission model and vehicle fuel consumption. GHG emissions during the disposal process were also estimated based mainly on the model of IGES. The results indicated that GHG emissions from sanitary landfill were highly dominated by methane (CH4) emissions (20,346 tons CO2eq a-1). In addition, carbon dioxide (CO2) was emitted (226 tons a-1) from the transportation process. This evaluation found that GHG emission estimates based on travel distance were lower than those based on fuel consumption (44 %). Furthermore, changing from diesel fuel to compressed natural gas will reduce transportation emissions by approximately 7 %.

Potential greenhouse gas emissions and reduction from municipal solid waste management in Phnom Penh municipality

“…The characteristics of MSW, such as proportion, dry matter content, and lower heating value (LHV), were obtained from a reliable published paper, 26 while the data on carbon content, the fraction of fossil carbon, and the fraction of degradable organic carbon were adapted from the IPCC guidelines, 29 as shown in Table 1. The auxiliary materials and GHG emission factors for different waste management methods were obtained from published papers 29–34 …”

“…The emissions from transportation were estimated using a method developed by Chen and Lo 4 in Eqns () and (), where E tran is the emission from transportation, d is the average distance (km), EF tran is the emission factor for transportation. FC is taken as 0.1858 L/km/tMSW 31 . Transportation of waste between each treatment facility is assumed to be equal to the distance to the landfill site, 18 km.…”

“…The auxiliary materials and GHG emission factors for different waste management methods were obtained from published papers. [29][30][31][32][33][34]…”

“…FC is taken as 0.1858 L/km/tMSW. 31 Transportation of waste between each treatment facility is assumed to be equal to the distance to the landfill site, 18 km.…”