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Please see EPA's Climate Change site for current information on climate change and global warming. EPA no longer updates EPA's Global Warming Site, but is maintaining this archive for historical purposes. Thank you for visiting the archive of EPA's Global Warming Site.
Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases
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Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks
In the 21st century, management of municipal solid waste continues to be an important environmental challenge. Climate change is also a serious issue, and the United States is embarking on a number of voluntary actions to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases that can intensify climate change. This report examines how municipal solid waste management and climate change are related.
Management of municipal solid waste presents many opportunities for greenhouse gas emission reductions. Source reduction and recycling can reduce emissions at the manufacturing stage, increase forest carbon storage, and avoid landfill methane emissions. Combustion of waste allows energy recovery to displace fossil fuel-generated electricity from utilities, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the utility sector and landfill methane emissions. Diverting organic materials from landfills also reduces methane emissions.
This report is the second edition of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Management of Selected Materials in Municipal Solid Waste. You can download the report using the links below.
Since the report's publication, EPA's Climate and Waste Program has finalized new GHG emission factors for the following materials: carpet, personal computers, clay brick, concrete, fly ash, and copper wire. The methodology used to develop these new factors are documented in the addenda below.
The background documents provide supporting detail regarding the methodology and data used to develop the report, addenda, and to update existing emission factors. A description of the changes made to the emission factors since the original publication of this report is included in the EF Roadmap (87.3 KB).
Report Sections
Full Report (3.2 MB pdf).
Cover (863 KB pdf)
Table of Contents (79 KB pdf)
Executive Summary (339 KB pdf)
Methodology (381 KB pdf)
Raw Materials Acquisition and Manufacturing (380 KB pdf)
Forest Carbon Sequestration (355 KB pdf)
Source Reduction and Recycling (166 KB pdf)
Composting (222 KB pdf)
Combustion (228 KB pdf)
Landfilling (203 KB pdf)
Accounting for Emission Reductions (236 KB pdf)
Addenda for New Emission Factors
Background Document for Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors for Clay Brick Reuse and Concrete Recycling (775.2 KB pdf)
Background Document for Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors for Fly Ash Used as a Cement Replacement in Concrete (584.5 KB pdf)
Background Document for Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors for Carpet and Personal Computers (346 KB pdf)
Background Document for Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors for Copper Wire (80.8 KB)
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