New cost estimating tool available for organic waste management

Organic waste management – such as composting and anaerobic digestion – represents a key opportunity to reduce short-lived climate pollutants from the municipal solid waste sector. Planning and developing such projects requires a detailed understanding of the costs involved in constructing and operating organic waste management facilities.

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s (CCAC) Municipal Solid Waste Initiative is therefore pleased to announce the availability of a new cost estimating tool for managing source separated organics, called “OrganEcs”.

The OrganEcs tool helps estimate the costs associated with constructing and operating an organic waste management project. It provides planning-level assistance to local governments, waste professionals, policymakers, facility operators, and project developers to help them make financial decisions about their potential organic waste management projects. Specifically, the tool assists users in determining appropriate (1) gate fees (e.g. the per-unit charge for disposing waste at the facility), or (2) product sale price requirements (e.g. for compost, electricity), in order to meet specified investor returns. 

The tool also evaluates different organic waste treatment technologies including open air composting (with and without forced aeration), high-tech wet and dry anaerobic digestion, and low-tech wet anaerobic digestion. It uses cost and operating data from published reports, technology vendors, and industry professionals.

The OrganEcs tool was developed in 2015 for the CCAC by Andrea Stowell, under contract with Stratus Consulting and SCS Engineers, and with support from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA).

OrganEcs is an Excel spreadsheet. Instructions on how to use the tool can be found within the spreadsheet. It can be found and downloaded on the CCAC Municipal Solid Waste Initiative Knowledge Platform.