Waste

Globally, landfills are the third largest anthropogenic source of methane, accounting for approximately 11% of estimated global methane emissions, or nearly 800 MtCO2e.  Uncollected waste can contribute to open burning and illegal landfilling or open dumping, contributors to methane and black carbon. 

The World Bank projects that municipal solid waste streams will nearly double worldwide by 2025, which not only places increasing pressure on cities to provide proper collection and management services in order to avoid open dumping and open burning, but also significantly increases the load on the environment in terms of air pollutants like methane and black carbon within a business-as-usual scenario.

More efficient collection of waste and sanitary landfills as opposed to open dumping helps keep cities cleaner and thus improves surrounding ecosystem health.

Improvement of waste management systems is one of the best ways for cities to enhance real estate values and overall local value and quality of life. While waste management will always ultimately incur economic costs for a city, as a public service that needs to be provided, appropriate waste management strategies can reduce costs from environmental damage and help improve a city’s marketability. Proper waste management can create significant job opportunities as well. A recent study published by the European Commission shows that full implementation of EU waste legislation would save €72 billion a year, increase the annual turnover of the EU waste management and recycling sector by €42 billion and create over 400,000 jobs by 2020.

Waste can also be a resource.  For some cities, generating energy from waste either through landfill gas capture or incineration as a part of an integrated solid waste management plan has the potential to help offset fossil fuel derived energy sources and therefore improve resource efficiency. Additionally, compost produced from organic waste can be used as a soil amendment displacing synthetic fertilizers comprised of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. 

Food waste is addressed through one of the elements of an integrated solid waste management system through the diversion of organics. Organics management is a challenge to both developed and developing cities like New York City and Penang (Malaysia). A range of technologies exists to avoid emissions of methane from decomposition of organic waste in landfills and dumps, from processing organic waste simple windrow composting to anaerobic digestion technology. Food waste can also be addressed through prevention, for example awareness raising, and outreach and incentive programs. The Initiative will continue to feature cities like New York and Penang who have specific expertise to share with the network in order to scale up successes across the globe.

Furthermore, the Initiative has identified that a key challenge to the sustainability of organics programs that is not commonly addressed by the industry is how to create a market for the generated compost or other products.  That is why the World Bank is designing a results-based incentive mechanism to increase the diversion of organic waste in Penang and is developing a learning tool to help cities from both developed or developing countries on creating sustainable markets for composting to ensure the success of their food waste and organics programs.

In the waste sector, it is important to note that reductions are guaranteed as you move up the waste hierarchy, from open dumping to waste avoidance. However, because the widely varying situations in the world – for example waste composition, climate, economic and social consequences, there is no standardized approach to easily calculate the magnitude of SLCP reduction via waste management efforts.  

Although estimates can be made based on proxies, they will not be realistic or verifiable.  The initiative has begun work to build a calculator to be able to quantify baseline emissions and projected emissions reductions with standardized methodology. We expect the tool to be functional by October. 

Again, rapid action to reduce black carbon and methane can be achieved through banning open burning, optimizing transportation routes and upgrading equipment, diverting organics etc. However these activities cannot be implemented alone as there are considerations for economic and social challenges. That is why the initiative supports the development of tailored integrated solid waste management at the local and national levels. The initiative stresses that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions.

In the waste sector, it is important to note that reductions are guaranteed as you move up the waste hierarchy, from open dumping to waste avoidance. However, because the widely varying situations in the world – for example waste composition, climate, economic and social consequences, there is no standardized approach to easily calculate the magnitude of SLCP reduction via waste management efforts.  

Although estimates can be made based on proxies, they will not be realistic or verifiable.  The initiative has begun work to build a calculator to be able to quantify baseline emissions and projected emissions reductions with standardized methodology. We expect the tool to be functional by October. 

Again, rapid action to reduce black carbon and methane can be achieved through banning open burning, optimizing transportation routes and upgrading equipment, diverting organics etc. However these activities cannot be implemented alone as there are considerations for economic and social challenges. That is why the initiative supports the development of tailored integrated solid waste management at the local and national levels. The initiative stresses that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions.

Stratus Consulting conducted a short study on mitigation options for short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP) mitigation from the waste sector and identified that the greatest potential to reduce black carbon comes from the transportation of and open burning of waste. Open burning is a challenge in many developing cities due to lack of landfill space and lack of awareness. 

The Initiative’s work with cities will focus on moving up the waste hierarchy and developing integrated solid waste services, and one of the first steps is to gather data on open burning and identify options to mitigate this practice. Another important element in addressing black carbon is to challenge the transport system by optimizing collection routes and upgrading equipment. 

As a part of an integrated approach to waste management, once an assessment has been conducted (first stage of city support), the initiative will be able to report on how many cities will address open burning and transportation of waste as key sources of black carbon.