Life Cycle Waste

This category allows the user to calculate emissions from various forms of waste disposal, following the latest Defra data and methodologies. Emissions based on either the full life-cycle of specific waste materials, including the disposal process and contributions from carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane.

The emission factors used herein represent net life-cycle emissions of greenhouse gases resulting from water supply, water treatment and the use of biofuels/biomass as well as those associated with waste disposal. On average in the UK 88% of non-recycled waste goes into landfill and 12% goes to energy from waste (power only moving grate). It is important to note that this calculation includes both the life-cycle emissions for the material and the emissions from the process of disposal.

Note that the methodology does not currently cater for recycled textiles.

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How to use this category

Selecting an emissions scenario

To use this category the user will need all relevant waste information from waste audits and waste transfer/consignment notes. If a waste contractor is used then they will be able to advise to which location wastes have subsequently been delivered (i.e. landfill site, recycling operation, composting or energy recovery facility).

The total waste sent to landfill, recycled or composted is required along with the composition of the waste.

To use this category firstly use the drill-down wasteType to select which waste fraction is to be calculated from the following options.

• Paper and Card - no open loop recycling disposal option
• Kitchen/food waste - no closed or open loop recycling disposal option, recycled material percentage must be zero
• Garden/plant waste - no closed or open loop recycling disposal option, recycled material percentage must be zero
• Other organic - no open loop recycling disposal option
• Wood - no open loop recycling or anaerobic digestion disposal options
• Textiles - no open loop recycling, anaerobic digestion or composting disposal options
• Plastic (dense) - no open loop recycling, anaerobic digestion or composting disposal options
• Plastic (film) - no open loop recycling, anaerobic digestion or composting disposal options
• Ferrous metal - no open loop recycling, anaerobic digestion or composting disposal options
• Non-ferrous metal - no open loop recycling, anaerobic digestion or composting disposal options
• Silt/soil - no open loop recycling, anaerobic digestion or composting disposal options
• Aggregate materials - no open loop recycling, anaerobic digestion or composting disposal options
• Misc combustibles - no open loop recycling, anaerobic digestion or composting disposal options, recycled material percentage must be zero
• Glass - no anaerobic digestion or composting disposal options
• Batteries - no emobodied values (virgin or recycled); no open loop recycling
• Small Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE Cat. 1C) - no emobodied values (virgin or recycled); closed loop recycling and landfill disposal only
• Large Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE Cat. 1A) - no emobodied values (virgin or recycled); closed loop recycling and landfill disposal only
• Estimated impact of other materials (municipal and C*I) - no open loop recycling disposal option

Specifying activity data

The following profile item values can be specified which state the quantities of waste which were disposed of using each disposal method (the list above mentions which of these profile item values are not appropriate for certain waste fraction types).

• quantityClosedLoop - disposed of by closed loop recycling
• quantityOpenLoop - disposed of by open loop recycling
• quantityMovingGrate - disposed of by energy from waste, power only moving grate
• quantityAnaerobicDigestion - disposed of by energy from waste, anaerobic digestion
• quantityComposted - disposed of by composting
• quantityLandfill - disposed of by landfill

Any disposal methods not under consideration can be left unspecified (i.e. they will default to 0).

By default, the calculation assumes that all of the waste products were originally sourced from virgin materials. Since recycled materials are often associated with a smaller quantity of embodied emissions, the Defra methodology offers the ability to specify the fraction of each waste type which was originally derived from recycled materials. To specify the fraction represented by recycled materials, simply set the percentageRecycled profile item value to the appropriate percentage (expressed between 1-100). The returned value represents kgCO₂e emissions associated with the the complete life-cycle of the chosen waste type (including disposal emissions) taking into account the quantity which was sourced from recycled materials.

Results and calculation

The returned values representsgreenhouse gas emissions associated with the the life-cycle of the chosen waste type, including disposal. The following discrete amounts are returned:

• closedLoopDisposalCO2e: CO₂e emissions attributable closed loop recycling
• openLoopDisposalCO2e: CO₂e emissions attributable open loop recycling
• movingGrateDisposalCO2e: CO₂e emissions attributable moving grate incineration
• anaerobicDigestionDisposalCO2e: CO₂e emissions attributable to anaerobic digestion
• compostDisposalCO2e: CO₂e emissions attributable to composting
• landfillDisposalCO2e: CO₂e emissions attributable to landfill disposal
• totalDisposalCO2e: CO₂e emissions attributable all waste disposal methods used
• recycledEmbodiedCO2e: CO₂e emissions embodied within recycled materials
• virginEmbodiedCO2e: CO₂e emissions embodied within virgin materials
• totalCO2e: net CO₂e emissions attributable to entire material life cycle

Users should note that all quantities are expressed in terms of CO₂e - the quantity of CO₂ which would exert the same atmospheric warming effect and the emissions quantity.

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Note

The options for batteries, Small Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Large Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment contain no data for embodied (virgin or recycled) emissions. Therefore the default (i.e. full life cycle) calculations for these types of waste represent only disposal-specific emissions (see below).