Emissions of Greenhouse Gases and Climate Politics in the Latvian Waste Sector

Abstract

AbstractAccording IPCC guidelines for determination of greenhouse gases in waste management (IPCC 2006) the quantity of greenhouse gases must be determined for the emissions of CO2, CH4, N2O for such treatment activities: disposal of solid waste, biological treatment of solid waste and incineration and open burning of waste. Presented report reviles the current situation of this field in Latvia and conclusions on its minimization actions. The data received from Latvian environmental data bases shows that the quantity of disposed unsorted municipal waste is rising and created sanitary landfill system with anaerobic digestion of bio mas (the content of it in the disposed waste reaches 40–50 %) is promoting the emission of greenhouse gasses. Mathematical calculations shows that due to large quantity of unsorted solid waste disposed in sanitary landfills during years 2002–2010, it provides more than 50 Gg of methane per year. The data of the test experiments in four largest sanitary landfills—Getlini Eko, Pentuli, Daibe and Kivites shows that gas collection is organised only in the biggest landfills, but comparison of tested and estimated data shows that only 30 % of produced gas can be collected and transformed for electricity and heat production. The article reflects the main possibilities how to reduce the landfill gas emission introducing the pre-sorting facilities and reducing the disposal of biomass. The pre-treatment of unsorted waste and use of bio degradable fraction separately can facilitate the “green energy” production in our country and to be one of the possibilities to implement the decision on replacing fossil fuel for renewable materials in the European Commission (EC).KeywordsGreenhouse gasesDisposal of wastePre-treatment of mixed wasteMathematical modelling of waste management