Greenhouse Gas Emission Factor of Scrapped Cable and Wire Recycling Factories

Abstract

Carbon footprint of three scrapped cable and wire recycling processing plants was analyzed by examining the annual carbon emission and trend for 2009-2011. Among the six greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O, SF6, HFCs, and PFCs), the annual emission of CO2 was the highest (>95%), while remaining gases only accounted for less than 5% of the total greenhouse gas emission. When analyzing the collected data based on different frontier categories, Category II (greenhouse gas emission indirect caused by electricity consumption) had the highest emission proportion (>57%). It is because the machines used for the physic-mechanical processing procedure require a lot of electricity. In order to do emission inventory accurately and control the electricity consumption, laws or regulations should stimulate electricity consumption to be recorded and monitored separately for each operation permit. It is also recommended to record and monitor electricity consumption of administration area and the manufacturing/processing area separately. Results of this study revealed that the average emission factor for processing recycled cables and wires using a physic-mechanical method was 0.0474±0.0162 tonnes of CO2e per tonne of material processed. If the calculation was based on the amount of products generated, the EF of average greenhouse gases was 0.1613±0.0589 tonnes of CO2e per tonne of plastics, 0.0766±0.0278 tonnes of CO2e per tonne of copper, 1.7891±1.4572 tonnes of CO2e per tonne of aluminum, and 2.1030±1.6937 tonnes of CO2e per tonne of iron.