Abstract

Waste generation is one of the multiple factors affecting the environment and human health that increases directly with growing population and social and economic development. Nowadays, municipal solid waste disposal sites and their management create climate challenges worldwide, with one of the main problems being high biowaste content that has direct repercussions on greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. In Bolivia, as in the most developing countries, dumps are the main disposal sites for solid waste. These places usually are non-engineered and poorly implemented due to social, technical, institutional and financial limitations. Composting plants for treatment of biowaste appear as an alternative solution to the problem. Some Bolivian municipalities have implemented pilot projects with successful social results; however, access to the economic and financial resources for this alternative are limited. In order to encourage the composting practice in the other Bolivian municipalities it is necessary to account for the GHG emissions. The aim of the present study compiles and summarizes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines methodology and some experimental procedures for accounting of the greenhouse gases emissions during the biowaste composting process as an alternative to its deposition in a dump or landfill. The GHG emissions estimation results by open windrow composting process determined in the present study show two scenarios: 38% of reduction when 50% of the biowaste collected in 2019 was composted; and 12% of reduction when 20% of the biowaste was composted.

Highlights

  • Climate change has become a crosscutting issue in the management and direction of public policies worldwide, and the waste sector is an important contributor reflected in the greenhouse gases (GHG) inventories

  • According to the 1996 and 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines, the estimation method for accounting the GHG emissions is given by the Equation (1), where AD is the activity data that considers human activity with coefficients, and EF are the emission factors that quantify the emissions or removals per unit activity; the EF varies from default values (Tier 1) until more estimation complex methods (Tier 3); the parties members of the United Nations

  • The CH4 and N2 O emissions estimation can be determined by the following steps: Step 1: Data collection on the amount of solid waste that is composted [14]; Step 2: Estimate the CH4 and N2 O emissions from composting process with Equations

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Summary

Introduction

Climate change has become a crosscutting issue in the management and direction of public policies worldwide, and the waste sector is an important contributor reflected in the GHG inventories. Earth (APMT), methane (CH4 ) generated at solid waste disposal sites is responsible for approximately 10% of the annual global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions [1]. According to the National Statistics Institute of Bolivia (INE), the Municipal. The Solid Waste Disposal Sites (SWDS) in Bolivia are mainly dumps, being approximately 6.8% disposed in sanitary landfills, 4.1% in controlled dumps and 89.1%. According to Ahn [7], the GHG monitoring results in well managed composting plants, which show that the CO2 produced is biogenic, and CH4 and. If proper composting conditions are not managed, CH4 and N2 O emissions could potentially increase

Methodology
GHG Emission Sources
Estimation Method
Solid Waste Disposal Sites
Solid waste disposal
Incineration and open burning of waste
Biological Treatment of Solid Waste
Flux Chamber Method
Funnel Method
Results and Discussion
Method

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