Enhancing NDC ambition and scaling up action in Peru’s municipal solid waste sector

Landfills in Peru. Photo: Alex Proimos CC BY-NC 2.0

Workstream:

Closed

started:

2020

Landfills are the third-largest source of global anthropogenic methane and also pose multiple threats to human health and the environment, due to inadequate removal and treatment of waste. In Peru where a population of about 33 million resides, the organic solid waste sector contributes to over one-third of the country’s methane emissions. About 99% of urban solid waste in Peru is buried in landfills and over half of that is organic waste. This is not a problem only for Peru but throughout the region where there’s often limited household waste separation, few composting plants, and poor infrastructure to collect and transport waste. 

The government of Peru requested assistance from the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) to enhance its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets and scale up implementation in their municipal solid waste sector. The requested assistance included the facilitation of an information exchange with CCAC partner, Chile, and consisted of five high-level policy meetings between the two governments to discuss best practices. The meetings focused on policy, regulation, high-level strategy, financing, and how the national government can catalyze action. The project also carried out capacity-building workshops in four municipalities and developed a high-level pre-feasibility analysis for a organic waste treatment project for each municipality.

Objectives

The main objective of this initiative was to support policy development, monitoring systems, technology deployment, and the adoption of climate-friendly practices in the waste sector in Peru. This work was based on the learning outcomes from the development of a National Organic Waste Strategy in Chile.

What we are doing

The project started with a peer exchange between Chile and Peru which consisted of five high-level policy meetings between the countries. The conversations focused on policy, regulation, high-level strategy, financing, and how the national government can catalyze action.

The workshops provided to the four municipalities sought to raise awareness about the link between MSW and climate change and the importance of diverting organic waste from landfills and of flaring and/or utilizing landfill gas. Also, these workshops created capacities through the training on low-carbon organic waste management technologies by showcasing the key technical, financial, environmental, and social aspects of the most suitable technologies for organic waste management. The participants also learned how they can estimate GHG and SLCP emission reductions associated with waste management projects. Lastly, through these workshops, the cities identified specific organic waste projects that could be implemented in their territories. This information would be used to provide technical support and recommendations to these cities to advance organic waste projects to a ready-to-launch stage, which would result in SLCP emission reductions.

The project then evaluated the feasibility of improving organic waste management in four Peruvian cities, including a preliminary economic evaluation to determine the emissions that could be avoided by implementing an organic waste strategy. Workshops on climate change and waste, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV), development, financing, and public awareness of organic waste treatment technologies were carried out in each city. Pre-feasibility studies were conducted for different organic waste treatment options. This included expanding existing small composting plants in each city so that they could manage larger amounts of waste.
The project used two waste sector tools developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency for the CCAC.

OrganEcs tool – Evaluated different technological solutions to determine the most feasible and cost-efficient option.
Solid Waste Emissions Estimate Tool (SWEET) – Analyzed the potential emissions reductions associated with different waste management scenarios.

More detailed analyses of the projects were then carried out with each city receiving recommendations to improve their waste sector by reducing, recycling, and composting waste. The recommendations included options for full public financing and operation and also for private sector participation.

The findings and technical assistance from the collaboration have also helped Peru prepare a major Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) Support Project called Organic waste management in Peru: Accelerating progress towards a circular and carbon-neutral waste sector to replicate Chile’s success.

Why we are doing this work

Peru’s government wants to combat the country’s solid waste problem by promoting better reuse of products, recycling of waste, and composting of organic waste, while also pursuing methods to convert organic waste into functional products such as fertilizer or energy sources. However, due to reasons such as the country’s current policy environment not being conducive to the changes, lack of in-country technical expertise, and limited financing options given that waste projects can require high upfront investments, this ambition was challenging.

Thanks to the advice from Chile, this project helped Peru review their policy framework for organic waste management based on advice from Chile’s successful approval of a National Organic Waste Strategy.