Integrated waste management as a climate change stabilization wedge

Abstract

Anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gas emissions are known to contribute to global increases in greenhouse gas concentrations and are widely believed to contribute to climate change. A reference carbon dioxide concentration of 383 ppm for 2007 is projected to increase to a nominal 500 ppm in less than 50 years according to business as usual models. This concentration change is equivalent to an increase of 7 billion tonnes of carbon per year (7 Gt C year(-1)). The concept of a stabilization wedge was introduced by Pacala and Socolow (Science, 305, 968-972, 2004) to break the 7 Gt C year(- 1) into more manageable 1 Gt C year(- 1) reductions that would be achievable with current technology. A total of fifteen possible 'wedges' were identified; however, an integrated municipal solid waste (MSW) management system based on the European Union's waste management hierarchy was not evaluated as a wedge. This analysis demonstrates that if the tonnage of MSW is allocated to recycling, waste to energy and landfilling in descending order in lieu of existing 'business-as-usual' practices with each option using modern technology and best practices, the system would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1 Gt C year( -1). This integrated waste management system reduces CO(2) by displacing fossil electrical generation and avoiding manufacturing energy consumption and methane emissions from landfills.

Assessment of Organic Waste Management Methods Through Energy Balance

“…recycling and AD, is required for a sustainable MSW management (Liamsanguan and Gheewala, 2008;Bahor et al, 2009;Tabata et al, 2011;Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata, 2012). This approach, known as Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM), includes the source-separation of waste made by residents, an efficient collection and transportation network (similar to the rational network of towns used in this survey), the recovery of useful materials and energy, as well as the disposal of residual waste (Kathiravale and Yunus, 2008;Menikpura et al, 2012).…”

Technological Proposals for Recycling Industrial Wastes for Environmental Applications

“…To mitigate the harmful consequences caused by climate change, one of the challenges is to develop and improve technologies for energy production and to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere [2]. This reduction may be accomplished not only capturing the gases emitted but also by designing procedures with low emissions.…”

“…Quicklime is produced by calcination of limestone at about 1000 °C in a limekiln according to the reaction: CaCO 3 + heat → CaO + CO 2 (1)…”

Monitoring of landfill gas emission rates: application of the static chamber approach to an Italian sanitary landfill site

“…In spite of some slight annual reductions, the recovery efficiencies in Table 4 appear quite consistent. A certain reliability of the recovery efficiencies of Table 4 is derivable from the following considerations: 1) at a site-specific level, the design criterion of the mentioned gas collection and energy recovery system at "Fano" landfill properly assumed a recovery efficiency respectively of 85% for Section "1" and 80% for Section "2" (see Figure 2), with a consequential average planning value of 82.5%; 2) at a general level, although for those landfills that collect landfill gas the collection efficiencies reported in the technical-scientific literature vary widely [14], recently it has been shown that well designed and operated landfills can achieve landfill gas recoveries particularly high [4,12].…”