WASTE AND CARBON EVALUATION OF CARBON FOOTPRINT AT LIPOR

Transcription

1 WASTE AND CARBON EVALUATION OF CARBON FOOTPRINT AT LIPOR Abreu, S.; Almeida, A.; Almeida, C.; Araújo Barros, N.; Carneiro, F.; Leite, F.; Mendes, P.; Nogueira, I.; Oliveira, P.* Lipor - Porto Region Intermunicipal Waste Management Association Apartado BAGUIM DO MONTE PORTUGAL Executive Summary According to the most recent assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the planet s warming is unequivocal and it is beyond doubt that human activities have been contributing considerably to it. Furthermore adverse effects are already felt in many areas like agriculture, coastal areas, biodiversity and ecosystems and extreme weather events. Despite the Waste Sector contribution is not too high yet, this is an area that can contribute largely to the global reduction of Greenhouse Gases that we urgently need. Lipor is a Waste Management organization that has been worried with its impacts in environment and in the community around us for years. In fact, we firmly believe that we have our role in the sustainability of the planet. Therefore we started a project to evaluate our Carbon Footprint and to set measures that will contribute for its reduction. In this calculation we include not only our operational facilities but also transportation and electricity consumption. Our goal now is to develop initiatives that will allow us to significantly diminish our Carbon Footprint and contribute to reduce the impact of Climate Change. Introduction Lipor Intermunicipal Solid Waste Management is responsible for the management, treatment and valorisation of the solid waste produced by eight municipalities of the Oporto Region: Espinho, Gondomar, Maia, Matosinhos, Porto, Póvoa de Varzim, Valongo and Vila do Conde. Serving an area of 650 km2, and around inhabitants, Lipor manages more than tonnes of waste per year. Climate Change is pointed out as one of the main issues the Mankind will have to face in this century. * susana.abreu@lipor.pt; abilio.almeida@lipor.pt; catarina.almeida@lipor.pt; filipe.carneiro@lipor.pt; fleite@lipor.pt; pedro.oliveira@lipor.pt; nuno.barros@lipor.pt; paula.mendes@lipor.pt; isabel.nogueira@lipor.pt.

2 In fact if the ideas about the connection between Greenhouse Gases (GHG) and Climate Change were being discussed in terms of probabilities, it s becoming obvious that this connection is real, even among specialists. According to IPCC (United Nations International Panel in Climate Change) recent analyses and conclusions, it s beyond doubt that Global Warmth is a direct result of anthropogenic emissions. The commitments signed in the Kyoto Protocol point out to a goal of 8 % reduction to Europe at 15 in The national goals negotiated for Portugal allow a growth of 27 % to our country, even thou we already surpass this limit. Despite the waste sector contribution to GHG not being too high, about t of CO2 eq. in 2005, this is an area which can largely contribute to diminishing the global quantities of GHG emissions. In Portugal, the waste sector emissions counted as much as 12 % in the national inventory, in 1990, being expected a percentage of 7 % in Aware of our contribution to the sector of waste in Portugal - Lipor s production is about 12 % of total national - and embracing our beliefs that sustainable development is the path we must follow, Lipor decided to bet in a strategy for diminishing its carbon footprint and contribute to the solution of the problem of Climate Change. Before the effort in the reduction of GHG, it was important to make an assessment of our actual emissions, so it was set off the project Evaluate the Carbon Footprint at Lipor. In the base of the development of this project were three well defined goals: 1. Evaluate the emissions of GHG directly connected to the activities of waste management and complementary projects (the footprint itself); 2. Identify and develop projects and initiatives for reducing the footprint, whether through energetic efficiency, whether by compensating the emissions. 3. Increase the GHG awareness of citizens, increasing their individual and collective participation in the project, and contributing for their perception of the Climate Change and Global Warming problems. It s a Global problem but each of us can act at our local level. All the work that is being developed is integrated in a strategy that we call 2M Menos Resíduos, Menos Carbono (less waste, less carbon). Within this strategy we will develop several initiatives, previewed to 2009, for instance: - Municipal Technicians Training; - Increase Lipor Energetic Efficiency; - Alternative Fuel projects (Biodiesel, Natural Gas); - Study about Photovoltaic Solar Energy - Zero Carbon Events.

3 Methodology In the evaluation of Lipor emissions we considered 2006 the base year. It was the year where data was consolidated and where we revised our Strategic Plan for Waste Management. Despite this was the base year, we considered all the years back to 1982, accounting the landfill emissions since then. All the landfill emissions were calculated using the First Order Decay (FOD) model, thus considering the production of biogas not only in the landfilling year but through coming years. Having edited our Strategic Plan for Waste Management, we will forecast the emissions for the key years of the Plan (2010, 2016). We also consider the year 2020, to cope with the European Strategy The evaluated emissions include all Lipor facilities and main activities, namely Landfilling (including biogas burning), Energy Recovery, Organic Valorisation (composting) and Recycling (sorting waste). We also calculate the emissions regarding the complementary activities like Mobility and Transportation, the fleet vehicles (trucks, cars, fuel consumption, working trips ), energy consumption (e.g. electricity, natural gas, fuel). The collection of the waste within the management system is responsibility of the Municipalities, and we opted for not including it in our accounting (this inclusion will be discussed again in the future). To sum up we considered the direct emissions, resulting of the operational activities and fuel use and the indirect emissions, resulting of electricity consumption. For an accurate picture of Lipor s contribution, we thought that it would be important to consider the avoided emissions too. In this case we consider the electricity potential and the biogas use as our main reductions. In fact, we consider the avoided emissions of the production of electricity that will substitute the use of fossil fuels. We also consider the materials and products we produce like the materials send to recycling and the use of compost in agriculture (substituting chemical fertilizers). For all the calculations of emissions we used the methodology of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol of World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and for the World Resources Institute (WRI). The emission factors used were the proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change. We considered the six gases of Greenhouse Effect pointed out by Kyoto protocol. However, as in our activities the f-gases (HFC, PFC e SF 6 ) are not relevant we just consider for calculations CO 2, CH 4 and N 2 O. All the results were presented in CO 2 eq for comparison with other studies and analyses.

4 Results We present here a graphic with the summary of the data gathered in the development of this project, the carbon footprint of Lipor. As we pointed out before, in our calculations are not only the direct emissions but also the indirect and the avoided ones with recycling and composting for instance. t CO2e Lipor's Carbon Footprint Landfill Energetic Valorisation Composting Fuel Mobility Electricity Consumption Burning Biogas Electricity Production Fertilizers Substitution Material to Recycling As we can see the biggest contributors are, by far, the landfilling and energetic valorization (incineration), being these the focus areas of our projects to diminish the GHG emitted quantities. As we can see in the graphic of the direct emissions, even mobility and fuel use are not significant when compared with these two operations.

5 Direct emissions Mobility Fuel use Composting Energy recovery Landfilling The total Carbon Footprint of Lipor in 2006 was 403 kt CO 2 eq. To increase the communication possibilities of these values we opt for calculating the specific emissions, both per person and per treated tone. In these cases the values were 776 kg / ton MSW and 405 kg CO2 / inhabitant. Here is an example of the values for the specific emissions for 2006 and our commitments for the key years 2010, 2016 and year year Specific emissions per inhabitant and per tonne of treated waste In the following table we can see the values to 2006 and the tendencies for the key years, divided per direct, indirect and avoided emissions. Kt CO2eq Direct emissions Indirect emissions 1,7 2,4 3,4 3,5 Avoided emissions

6 Conclusion Despite the contribution of waste sector not being very considerable, we still believe that this sector can be of crucial importance for the achievement of Kyoto national and global goals. The work of measuring and evaluating emissions and developing a strategy for coping with these emissions and reduce them is of utmost importance for us and, we strongly believe, for the sustainability of the planet. The development of 2M strategy will drive us to a more efficient organization and consequently with less impact in terms of GHG emissions and energy wasted. To achieve these values we will have to make an effort in energetic efficiency, in having a more sustainable and clever mobility and increase the material for recycling. We are already working for taking some of these initiatives into action, like: IGEM (Methane Emissions Management Incentive) Managing our future landfill with a cap & pay system - We define a limit (best practices) and the landfill manager will pay if it surpasses that limit and will receive if he keeps his emissions below that limit. Using alternative fuels Starting to use biodiesel (goal is to reach B30 until the end of the year) and developing a natural gas project, which will allow us to use in our trucks and other veichles natural gas. In a second fase this project will be expanded to the municipalities we work with. Training and awareness Municipal and Lipor technicians training; On-line carbon calculator; School training and awareness this will allow an increase in awareness an citizens will start to think in terms of GHG emissions, chosing products with smaller Carbon Footprint. Our main goal is to achieve a reduction of 24 % of global GHG in 2016 and 31 % in Working together with our stakeholders and with the cooperation of citizens and society we will manage to do it! References Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente (APA), 2006: Plano Estratégico para os Resíduos Solídos Urbanos (PERSU II) E.Value, 2008: Avaliar e Valorizar as Emissões de Gases com Efeito de Estufa das Actividades Lipor

7 European Comission, DG Environment, 2001: Waste Management Options and Climate Change: Final Report Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2006: 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Lipor, 2006: Relatório de Sustentabilidade Lipor, 2007: Plano Estratégico para a Gestão Sustentável dos Resíduos Sólidos do Grande Porto