Ron Vance U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Waste and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction

Ron VanceU.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Waste and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction

Combustion11.9%

Recovery33.8%

Land Disposal54.3%

MSW Management in the U.S.

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 20052007200820090

50

100

150

200

250

300

0

2

4

6

8

10

0.0

88.1

0.00.00.00.0

104.4

0.00.00.00.0

121.1

0.0

0.00.00.0

127.8

0.00.00.00.0

151.6

0.00.00.00.0

166.3

0.00.00.00.0

208.3

0.00.00.00.0

217.3

0.00.00.00.0

242.5

0.00.00.00.0

252.4

0.0

255.0

0.00.00.0

243.0

0.0

0.00

2.68

0.000.000.000.00

2.96

0.000.000.000.00

3.25

0.00

0.000.000.00

3.25

0.000.000.000.00

3.66

0.000.000.000.00

3.83

0.000.000.000.00

4.57

0.000.000.000.00

4.52

0.000.000.000.00

4.72

0.000.000.000.00

4.67

0.00

4.63

0.000.000.00

4.34

0.00

MSW Generation Rates,1960 to 2009

Total MSW generation Per capita generation

To

tal M

SW

ge

ne

rati

on

(m

illio

n t

on

s)

Pe

r c

ap

ita

ge

ne

rati

on

(lb

s/p

ers

on

/da

y)

20092007

Municipal Solid Waste Generation in 2009

243 Million Tons

Paper & Paperboard

28.2%

Glass 4.8%Metals 8.6%

Plastics 12.3%

Other 3.5%

Food Scraps 14.1%

Yard Trimmings 13.7 %

Wood 6.5%

Rubber, leather, and textiles 8.3%

Products Generated in MSW, 2009

Other Wastes 1.5%

Containers & Packaging 29.5%

Nondurable Goods 22.0%

Food Scraps 14.1%

Yard Trimmings 13.7%

Durable Goods 19.2%

243 million tons before recycling

1960

1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2007

2008

2009

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

0.0

5.6

0.00.00.0

0.0

6.5

0.00.00.0 0.0

8.00.0 0.00.0

0.0

9.3

0.00.00.0

0.0

14.5

0.00.00.0

0.0

16.7

0.00.00.0

0.0

33.2

0.00.00.0

0.0

55.8

0.00.00.0

0.0

69.5

0.00.00.0

0.0

79.9

0.0

84.8

0.00.00.0

82.0

0.00.0%

6.4%

0.0%0.0%0.0%0.0% 6.2%

0.0%0.0%

0.0%0.0%

6.6%

0.0%

0.0%0.0%

0.0%

7.3%

0.0%0.0%0.0%

0.0%

9.6%

0.0%0.0%0.0%

0.0%

10.1%

0.0%0.0%0.0%

0.0%

16.0%

0.0%0.0%0.0%0.0%

25.7%

0.0%0.0%0.0%

0.0%

28.6%

0.0%0.0%0.0%

0.0%

31.6%

0.0%

33.3%

0.0%0.0%0.0%

33.8%

0.0%

MSW Recycling Rates,1960 to 2009

Total MSW recycling Percent recycling

To

tal M

SW

re

cycl

ing

(m

illio

n to

ns)

Pe

rce

nt o

f ge

ne

ratio

n r

ecy

cle

d

20092007

AutoBatteries

Office-type Papers

SteelCans

YardTrimmings

Aluminum Beer

& Soda Cans

Tires GlassContainers

HDPE Natural (white

translucent) Bottles

PET Bottles & Jars

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

95.7

74.2

6659.9

50.7

35.3

31.128.9 28

Recycling Rates of Selected Products, 2009

Products

Re

cy

clin

g R

ate

Commodity Recycling Trends1970 1980 1990 2000 2009

Paper and paperboard 15% 21% 28% 43% 62%

Glass 1% 5% 20% 23% 26%

Metals 4% 8% 24% 35% 35%

Plastics Neg. <1% 2% 6% 7%

Yard trimmings Neg. Neg. 12% 52% 60%

Rubber tires 13% 6% 12% 26% 35%

Lead-acid batteries 76% 70% 97% 93% 99%

Selected Consumer Electronics 10% 19%

Neg. = less than 5,000 tons or 0.05 percent.

Unsustainable Trajectory

The current rate at which we are using resources is unsustainable.

In 2000, U.S. consumed 57% more materials than in 1975

U.S. has < 5% of world’s population but is responsible for about 1/3 of world’s total materials consumption

Evolution of Approach

Solid Waste Management

Recycling

Integrated Solid Waste Management

Sustainable Materials Management

Sustainable Materials Management

Waste is really a stream of valuable materials, with environmental

investments and impacts at all stages of the lifecycle.

Need to capture investments and reduce those impacts

Considers the human health and environmental impacts associated with the full life cycle of materials

Cradle-to-cradle vs cradle to grave

Recycling Climate Impacts

Calculating Climate Impacts

WAste Reduction Model (WARM)◦ Determining the GHG impacts of waste management practices -

landfilling, recycling, incineration, composting, and source reduction.

Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator◦ Expresses quantities of GHGs in terms of metrics such as number of

cars, gallons of gasoline, acres of forest, etc

Recycled Content (ReCon) Tool◦ Estimates the life-cycle GHG and energy impacts of purchasing or

manufacturing certain materials with recycled content

Durable Goods Calculator (DGC)◦ Presents GHG and energy impact of disposing or recycling of durable

household goods

Calculating Climate Impacts

Tools can be found at http://epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/waste/tools.html

Emission factors are not intended to assign ownership for greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

WasteWise

WasteWise is a free, voluntary EPA partnership program.

WasteWise helps organizations eliminate costly waste through waste reduction practices —benefiting the organization’s bottom line and the environment.

WasteWise is flexible.

More than 2,500 members

What Does WasteWise Offer?

Submit baseline data within 60 days of registering

Report on waste management activities annually

Commit to:◦ Prevent waste (i.e. source reduction)◦ Recycle◦ Purchase or manufacture recycled content products

What Does WasteWise Offer?

Free Technical Assistance◦ Individual attention◦ Helpline◦ Resources and Publications

Online Waste Tracking Software EPA Recognition

◦ Awards◦ Case studies, articles, and Web site success story features

Sector Benchmarking Climate Profile

Individualized Climate Profile

Calculates greenhouse gas emissions reductions resulting from waste prevention and recycling activities.

Translates these into real-life equivalents.

Valuable tool for communicating environmental benefits to management, employees, customers,

and other stakeholders.

ABC Company example to be created/inserted

WasteWise Re-TRAC

Track activities and input data all year long

Interactive tool—not just for end-of-year reporting

WasteWise Re-TRAC

Manage data for multiple locations◦ Ex: ACME Paper

can report activities in their VA, MD, and DC offices

◦ Need to have at least one location

◦ Reports can aggregate the data for all locations

WasteWise Re-TRAC

List of materials matches◦ Synchronized

with WARM◦ Ability to add

“Other” when material is not in the list

WasteWise Re-TRAC

Access to Re-TRAC reports with real-time data◦ Re-TRAC offers several

valuable reports ◦ Climate Profile available

immediately after EPA reviews annual data

Access to historical data for comparisons◦ Previous reporting data

will be loaded into Re-TRAC

More info on WasteWise

www.epa.gov/wastewise

(800) EPA-WISE (372-9473)

oswwastewise@epa.gov

Questions?

Ron VanceU.S. Environmental Protection Agency(703)347-8951vance.ronald@epa.gov