Investigation of greenhouse gas emissions and energy recovery potential from municipal solid waste management practices

Abstract

Greenhouse gas emissions resulting from municipal solid waste and the associated climate change impacts are getting attention worldwide. This study aims to advise local governments about the danger of greenhouse gas emissions of waste management technologies. Three waste management scenarios were proposed and assessed based on greenhouse gas emissions and energy recovery for the city of Kocaeli, Turkey, for the reference years 2018–2028. The first scenario entailed recycling a fraction of materials such as paper, plastic, glass, and metals and disposing of the remaining waste in a landfill with landfill gas recovery (current practice), while the second scenario included recycling of all the recyclable materials and producing compost from the remaining organic waste. The third scenario included incinerating all the waste to recover energy. The analysis indicated that, scenarios 1, 2 and 3 saved total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) of 275,449 tCO2 e y−1, 287,868 tCO2 e y−1, and 652,626 tCO2 e y−1, respectively. Global warming factors (GWF) for scenarios 1, 2 and 3 were calculated as −1.760, −0.972, −0.940 tCO2 e t−1 waste, respectively. As a separate process, the materials recovery facility in scenario 1 had the lowest GWF (−1.486 tCO2 e t−1), whereas the highest GWF was from composting in scenario 2 (0.106 tCO2 e t−1). Also, the incineration plant would generate on average about 2.09 E+10 kWh y−1 energy, which could reduce coal use by 2.58 E+06 ton per year and natural gas use by 2.37 E+09 m3 per year. The analysis showed that thermal conversion and material recycling are the best options to reduce climate change impacts in the study area. This study will help the local authorities to consider greenhouse gas emissions and energy recovery potentials in the study region, as well as in other parts of Turkey, when long term waste management plans are considered.