Better Waste Management Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Transcription

1 CONTACT Better Waste Management Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions Sieck, Marlene UBA Marlene Sieck Federal Environment Agency, Wörlitzer Platz Dessau-Roßlau marlene.sieck@uba.de Germany EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Historically, disposal by landfilling has been the predominant treatment method for municipal waste in the European Union (EU). Over the last two decades considerable reductions in landfilling have taken place, but there are significant differences between EU Member States. German waste policy has achieved a milestone in banning raw solid municipal waste from landfills and requiring waste to be pre-treated before being dumped into landfills. This requirement is laid down in the Landfill Ordinance. The restriction on waste in landfills has resulted in a significant reduction of methane emissions. Methans global warming potential is 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Avoiding methane emissions from biodegradable waste in landfill sites is the main contribution of the waste sector to climate protection. But also the changes in waste management practices to a higher share of recycling and more efficient energy recovery from waste have contributed to a better climate balance of the waste sector. Indeed, the contribution of municipal waste management to the reduction of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions amounted to approx. 18 million t CO 2 -eq per annum in 2006 in Germany. In particular, these emission reductions have been brought about by improving treatment techniques (emission reductions in the biological processes and greater energy efficiency in the thermal processes) and by increases in the separate collection and use of recyclable materials stemming from municipal waste and waste wood. If both strategies are combined, there is still an optimisation potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions of 10 million t CO 2 -eq per annum. The overall reduction amounts to approx. 56 million t CO 2 -eq in 2006 compared to In the EU 27, the situation is different since approx. 40 % of waste in the EU is still landfilled. The landfills give rise to substantial methane emissions: 50 million and 80 million t CO 2 -eq per annum (depending on which methane recovery rates are taken into account). Therefore, based on the replacement of landfilling with the high-quality material and energetic use of waste, there are still substantial climate protection potentials within the range of 140 million to approx. 200 million t CO 2 -eq per annum to be realised in the EU. In the EU 27 thus remains a huge potential for climate protection measures to be adopted by waste policy makers and waste management services. The implementation of alternative waste management options at technically-achievable levels offers significant GHG mitigation opportunities.

2 INTRODUCTION The Copenhagen Climate Summit in December 2009 did not agree on binding targets for for greenhouse gas emission reductions but nevertheless the struggle for more sustainable production and consumption patterns with a lower carbon intensity has to go on.the waste management sector is in the fortunate position to provide even negative GHG emissions if relevant measures are taken. This means that waste management action produces more benefits in terms of GHG than burden. This happens by replacement of primary row material by recycled products and the replacement of fossil fuels through energy from waste 1. In the National Inventory Reports only the direct greenhouse gas emissions of the waste management sector are taken into account. The overall efforts of the waste management sector in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions are not represented. In particular the efforts related to the separate collection of recyclables from waste and the re-use or energetic use of such recyclables or residue are shown as the savings of other sectors of the production industry and energy industry. 2 The presented research project has used the methodology of eco-balancing to examine the efforts of the municipal waste management sector including the use of waste wood in Germany and the 27 Member States as well. The balances referred to the actual data in 2006 and different optimisation scenarios for The expenditure resulting from collection, transport, treatment and recycling of waste after it has become available was compared to the savings arising from the secondary products and energy realised from waste. The determination and assessment of climate protection potential is based on the environmental balance sheet (life cycle assessment) method in the waste management sector. The basic suitability of the life cycle approach for assessing waste management issues has been confirmed by a number of works, and the methodology has been underpinned by an UBA research project 3. However, waste management as a subject of investigation, especially against the background of the Closed Substance Cycle and Waste Management Act (Kreislaufwirtschaftsgesetz KrW-/AbfG), involves a number of specific issues. In the context of the present project, which is concerned exclusively with determining potential for climate protection and conserving fossil resources, the following aspects are relevant: 1. The departure from the usual cradle to grave life cycle assessment of the material. Instead, the study considers the life cycle of the service known as waste management. The start of the assessment is thus determined by the occurrence of the waste. The previous life of the waste is not relevant to the question of recovery i.e. it has the same impact on all recovery options and can be cancelled out of the assessment. The situation would be different if the question were one of waste avoidance, which inevitably includes the generation of the waste. 2. At the end of the system there may also be a departure from the classic life cycle ( product life cycle assessment ) that a product may undergo by passing through several recycling cycles until its total elimination by incineration or landfill. If the waste management system to be assessed in accordance with the spirit of the closed cycle approach results in the creation of a quantifiable benefit, the latter can be ploughed back in the form of a credit (substitution of a primary product), thereby making it unnecessary in most cases to devote any further attention to the subsequent life of the product created from the waste. It is however important to make sure that the benefits of the systems to be compared are the same. Every benefit must be taken into account by means of a credit. In this way the same

3 benefit is shown for every system or scenario: the disposal of the same quantity of waste. The credits method uses equivalence processes to contrast the benefit derived from waste recovery, such as secondary products or energy, with the substituted primary products or conventionally generated energy. This is done in the same way for all scenarios. Moreover, all scenarios consider the same waste disposal quantity, which in 2006 stood at million tonnes of municipal waste including waste wood. This quantity represents the functional unit of the comparative study. Adopting this approach guarantees equivalence of the benefits, and hence comparability of the scenarios. DISCUSSION Germany has undertaken to make a 21 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 compared with 1990 (Kyoto target under the EU burden-sharing). This is about 256 million tonnes CO 2 -equivalents and means about 70 % of the reduction target of the European Union (EU 15). Source EEA (2003) Already in 2008, the reduction goal in Germany was achieved and the waste sector made a major contribution to this, primarily by avoiding methane emissions due to landfill. Methane is produced over a period of many years by anaerobic degradation of the organic components in municipal waste.

4 Table 1 Global warming potential of main greenhouse gases Greenhouse gas CO 2 equivalent (GWP i ) in kg CO 2 eq/kg Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), fossil 1 1 Methane (CH 4 ), fossil Methane (CH 4 ), renewable Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) [IPCC 2007, WG I, Chapter 2, Table 2.14] [IPCC 1995]. But also improved separate collection and recycling as well as more efficient thermal treatment of waste have contributed to reduced GHG emissions from the waste sector. The waste streams investigated in the present study Climate Protection Potential in the Waste Management Sector 4 are confined to two waste management sectors: municipal waste and waste wood recycling (in Germany this includes wood from construction and demolition waste, packaging etc.) The total sum of municipal waste (domestic and bulky waste, and waste for recycling as a subset of municipal waste) has remained constant over the years in Germany. Fig 2 Waste Arisings in Germany ( ) Following the entry into force of the Waste Management and Product Recycling Act in 1996, the practice of depositing untreated organic waste as landfill was gradually abandoned. In June 2005 the German Ordinance on Environmentally Compatible Storage of Waste from Human Settlements was implemented in full which means that no untreated waste is allowed to go to landfill anymore. This has resulted in a remarkable shift of waste treatment.

5 Figure 3 Changes in pathways for management of household waste Reference: UBA 2009 Historically, disposal by landfilling has been the predominant treatment method for municipal waste in the EU. Over the last two decades considerable reductions in landfilling have taken place, but as shown in Figure 4 there are significant differences between EU Member States. Figure 4 Management of municipal waste in the EU-27 in 2007 EUROSTAT MSW, % 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% EU 27 Germany Netherlands Sweden Belgium Denmark Austria Luxembourg France Italy Finland United Kingdom Spain Portugal Estonia Ireland Slovenia Hungary Slovakia Czech Republic Greece Latvia Cyprus Malta Lithuania Poland Romania Bulgaria Landfilled Incinerated Composted Recycled

6 Countries such as Germany, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands have high recycling rates and a high amount of waste that is incinerated. On the other hand there are some countries where landfilling is still the predominant waste disposal method. The Landfill Directive sets concrete targets to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste being landfilled 5. These targets are: By 2006 to reduce biodegradable municipal waste landfilled to 75% of that produced in 1995 By 2009 to reduce biodegradable municipal waste landfilled to 50% of that produced in 1995 By 2016 to reduce biodegradable municipal waste landfilled to 35% of that produced in Some countries of the EU have already reached their 2016 targets; for example the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Belgium and Germany. Others still rely heavily on disposal in landfill sites and have to deliver a demanding change in waste management to reach the targets. The implementation of the Directive means also that all new landfill sites must include gas recovery equipment and that such facilities need to be installed in all existing landfill sites by The achievement of these goals implies further reductions in methane emissions. For Germany, the reduction of methane emissions from landfill sites between 1990 and calculated for 2012 amounts to more than 90 %. Figure 5 Methane emissions from landfill sites in Germany in Gg (IPPC-FOD) Reference: Butz 2009

7 Additionally, energy recovery e.g. from Waste-to-energy plants avoids carbon dioxide emissions by substituting fossil fuels from power production. Half of the produced energy is regarded as renewable because it derives from the biodegradable part of waste. Thanks to recycling and energy recovery from waste, material flows in the waste management sector today are closely intertwined with those of the energy and raw material industries. When comparing different waste management systems it is necessary to consider the entire system in order to take account of all benefits and their environmental impacts. One benefit in addition to straightforward waste management is the production of energy or material (by means of energy and material recovery). Figure 6 Possible substitute processes, taking waste incineration plants as an example The credit method can give rise to negative environmental burden values as an accounting result. Such negative environmental burden values are to be understood as reductions in environmental burdens compared with the alternative system. The balance for 1990 was dominated by methane emissions from landfill sites. Since the balance for 2006 is drawn up without landfill, emission reductions and balance sheet results between 2005 and 2020 are no longer possible on the scale seen between 1990 and But a potential of about 10 million t CO 2 equivalent remains as an important contribution to the German climate protection target. Climate Balance For The European Union The calculations for the EU 27 are performed solely for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), i.e. the quantities of municipal waste that are reported to EUROSTAT by the Member States. For the EU 27 this also applies to waste wood, i.e. only quantities from the municipal sector are taken into account (Eurostat data for 2007). A total of three scenarios were defined for the EU 27: one Actual scenario with the waste quantities of 2007 and two separate future scenarios 2020 I and 2020 II. Calculation of credits and debits is largely on the basis of the emission factors determined for Germany. This also means that no adjustment is made to power consumption, i.e. the German power mix is retained. This simplification produces only a slight discrepancy in the result, since the difference for greenhouse gases at 541 g CO 2 eq/kwh el in the EU 27 mix instead of 598 g CO 2 eq/kwh el for Germany is negligible. Conversely, however, the power credit, instead of the marginal power figure for Germany (887 g CO 2 eq/kwh el ), uses a

8 substitution mix of 50% coal and 50% natural gas for the EU 27, which works out at 749 g CO 2 eq/kwh el. Two future scenarios were calculated: Scenario 2020 I Assumes that landfill will be discontinued and that the quantities hitherto sent for landfill will, with the exception of waste wood, be divided among the waste fractions (bio and green waste, glass, PBC, plastics) and disposal paths (incineration, M(B) plants), weighted on the basis of their share of the Actual situation. For waste wood it is assumed that the recycling rate will increase from the current 65% to 90%. It is also assumed that refuse composting 1 will be discontinued and for the sake of simplicity that the relatively small quantity will be added to the bio waste quantity. Implementing these assumptions would mean that a total of 47% of waste would be recycled in the scenario 2020 I. This almost meets the requirements of the Framework Directive on Waste, under which at least 50% is to be recycled by Scenario 2020 II Assumes that landfill will be discontinued, and that the quantities hitherto sent for landfill will now be redistributed as in the situation assumed for Germany in the scenario 2020 T. This is essentially the Actual situation in Germany in 2006, except that there is definitely no longer any direct deposition of waste as landfill. Again the waste wood quantity is an exception. Here it is assumed, as in scenario 2020 I, that the recycling rate increases from 65% to 90%. Unlike the German situation, it is not assumed that a Dual System will become established in the EU 27. Instead, the quantity corresponding to LWP in Germany is modelled as plastics, composites and metal packaging. Figure 7 Waste streams (destination) of the EU scenarios examined 300,000 Destination 1000 t/a 250, , , ,000 50,000 Waste wood Plastics, packaging Glass PBC Green waste Bio waste Refuse composting M(B) plants WIP Landfill I 2020 II

9 Figure 8 Overall results of standard balance EU 27 for greenhouse gases Greenhouse gases, total 150,000 20% eff. gas capture t CO2 eq/a 100,000 50, , ,000 40% eff. gas capture Waste wood Plastics, packaging Glass PBC Green waste Bio waste Refuse composting M(B) plants WIP Landfill Landfill -150, I 2020 II Regardless of whether an effective gas capture rate of 40% or 20% is assumed for the EU 27 or whether credits are given for carbon storage (C-sink), deposition of waste as landfill has the most unfavourable effects from a climate protection point of view. Even assuming the most favourable boundary conditions, deposition of municipal waste as landfill results in more than 50 million t CO 2 eq being emitted in the EU 27 every year. In the worst case, emissions of greenhouse gases from landfill sites are more than twice as high: 110 million t CO 2 eq. Thus deposition of waste as landfill causes one of the last major additional burdens in the field of waste management in Europe. If there are appropriate changes in waste management practices in this respect, a significant reduction in greenhouse gases can be achieved simply by avoiding the greenhouse gases released by landfill sites. In the scenario 2020 I, assuming appropriate utilisation of the waste quantities hitherto sent for landfill, the waste management sector in Europe can contribute a total of between approximately 112 million t CO 2 eq/a (taking account of C-sink; difference between total for 2020 I and 2007 Actual for 40% effective gas capture) and 168 million t CO 2 eq/a (excluding C-sink; difference between total for 2020 I and 2007 Actual for 20% effective gas capture) to the necessary overall saving in Europe. In the scenario 2020 II this contribution increases to between 135 million t and 192 million t CO 2 eq/a. From a climate protection point of view, a ban on landfill would make the crucial contributions to improving the climate protection balance of the waste management sector. CONCLUSION Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have to submit national reports containing GHG emission estimates according to the sectorbased categories used by the UNFCCC. Sector-based inventories indicate that emissions from the waste sector contribute to less than 5 percent of global GHG emissions (IPCC, 2007, p. 596). But viewed from a life-cycle perspective you get a more comprehensive picture and find out that changing waste management can contribute significantly to

10 mitigating GHG emissions. Stopping disposal of MSW as landfill is the most important step for a better climate balance. Reducing methane emissions from landfill is the first activity. In parallel waste streams will shift to more recycling and energy producing treatment options (e.g. incineration or fermentation). Replacing raw materials and energy derived from fossil sources means reducing GHG emissions. Successful waste management systems produce more benefits than burden for the climate balance. REFERENCES 1 ISWA (2009): Waste and Climate Change ISWA White Paper 2 UBA (2009): Berichterstattung unter der Klimarahmenkonvention der Vereinten Nationen 2009 Nationaler Inventarbericht- Zum Deutschen Treibhausgasinventar , Dessau Ifeu (1998): Ökologische Bilanzen in der Abfallwirtschaft (UBA-Texte 10/99) 4 Öko-Inst. /ifeu (2010): Climate Protection Potential in the Waste Management Sector 5 Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the Landfill of waste (OJ L 182, )