Climate impacts of source-separated biowaste from small neighbourhoods in Finland based on pilot experiments for novel biowaste collection systems

Abstract

The climate impacts of biowaste collection and utilisation were assessed based on data from two regional pilots. The EU’s waste legislation will require biowaste source separation and collection from detached houses in communities with over 10,000 inhabitants starting from 2024 onwards. Two novel biowaste collection approaches were piloted in two Finnish case regions. One with biowaste collection to larger biolinks with a van and another with composting biowaste bins. The biolink approach reduces the need for waste truck driving, while composting biowaste bins enable an extended collection period. A life cycle assessment method was applied to assess the climate impacts of biowaste collection options and utilisation compared with current practices. The results show that source separation of biowaste and direction to biogas production leads to lower overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the system level compared with the current waste incineration option. Waste logistics has only a minor role in total GHG emissions, but a system based on biolinks and biowaste collection using a van led to the lowest GHG emission levels. Therefore, from a GHG emissions perspective, encouraging people to source separate their biowaste should be made as easy and encouraging as possible, no matter how the actual logistics is provided. However, novel and improved approaches for source-separated biowaste collection provide the potential for additional GHG emissions reductions.