Understanding Waste from a Climate Change Perspective: Municipal Solid Waste Management in Canada By Rathan Kumar Bonam . A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Natural Resource Management Natural Resources Institute University of Manitoba ' Winnipeg, Manitoba May,2009 Copyright @ 2009 by Rathan Bonam .I'I.I Ii TJN I\,' EIì.SIT-Y OII MANITOBA Iì¿\C- t I t,'f \' OF ( ì lì¡\DLi¡\TE STUDIBS C]0 I)Y II I (; I-I1' PBRMISSION ¿ Understanding Waste From a Climate Change perspective: Municipal Solicl Waste Management in Canada Iìr, Iì¿than I(umar Bonam A Thesis/Pl'acticttltt stlblttittctl {o thrr lì¡rcrr¡lty of'Grrrduate Stuclies of T¡e Universitv of M¿tllittlba itr ¡rlr'(i:tl lìrlfillrrrcnt of'thc requirement of the tlegree ol Master of Natural Resource Management lìathan [(rrnr¿u. I]on¿rmO2009 Permissiolt lt¿rs becll gt'aufctl to thc t-lrrir,",'ri,-n.,t'Manitob¿r Libraries to lend â copy of this thesis/practiculrt, to Libratl' ¿uttl ¡\r'chivcs C:ur:rtl¿r (LAC) to lend ¿ì copy of this thesii/practicum, and to LAC's agcrtt (UMI/ProQucsf) Lo ttticrofilrtt, sell copies and to publish an abstract of this f h cs is/¡r r':rcticu ur. This reproduction or co[)\' of'this fhcsis h:ts bccn rn¿rrtc available by authority of the copyright orvner solely for the purposc ol" ¡lrivatc sturlv iurcl rcscarch, and ma5, only be reproclucetl antl copiea as pet'mitted by copyl'igltf l:ru's or l itll c-\l)r'css u,l'ittcn aufhorizatio¡ fi-orn thà copyright orvner. Abstract This thesis analyses the current solid waste management situation in Canada to determine the most effective methods of managing solid waste. To arrive at best practices for sustainable waste management, the relationships between waste composition, diversion effofts, management methods and landfill characteristics were explored for 9l Canadian landfills. Municipal solid waste undergoes biological decomposition to generate landfill gas, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. In addition I developed: l) a statistical analysis of operations and their impact on methane generation, and2) waste management guidance to reduce emissions from the solid waste sector. Landfill space is in short supply with many landfills reaching their capacity. In order to save landfill space and prevent further harm to the atmosphere, best practices in waste management have to be embraced by landfill sites across Canada. Based on the limited capacity of landfills in many regions of Canada and growing waste generation per capita a shortage of landfìll space is expected in the next twenty years, which increases the pressure for sustainable waste management practices. Best practices for managing landfills and waste include increased depth, greater compaction, waste diversion and landfill gas capture. These could control pollution and conserve landfill space. Higher disposal fees are significantly statistically related to better waste management practices, such as greater compaction rates (i.e., higher density) and greater depth, as well as more diversion. The average depth of a Canadian landfill is 20 meters with the deepest being 50 meters. If the national average depth was doubled, this action would double the average life of Canadian landfills. The survey showed that the average density of waste is about 750 kg/cubic meter, varying from 125 to 1380 kg/cubic rneter. If the national average for waste compaction is increased to 1380 kg/metre, this would have the overall effect of nearly doubling the amount of waste that can be placed into the same landfill space. In addition, higher disposal fees are correlated with lower per capifa waste production. Methane recovery is only occurring at 52 landfills but should be carried out at all landfills above a minimum size to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG). Currently, many provinces have targeted landfìll gas recovery as part of their greenhouse gas mitigation strategy. Major questions remain with respect to actual methane production in landfill sites. Therefore, to see if operational factors impact emissions production, recovered methane emissions were statistically analyzed. The average absolute error between the statistically modeled and recovered methane from the 29 landfills is 44%.In addition, the linear regression model with an R2 = 0.832, showed that landfill emissions are positively correlated with landfill depth, density and organic waste and negatively correlated with waste diversion. In 2005, only a small portion of the waste stream was recovered or composted. Finally, waste divefted in 2005 from 97 active landfills produced a net decrease of approxirnately three million tonnes of GHG emissions. Considering all the benefits of waste diversion and its impact on GHG emissions, all municipalities should adopt curbside cornposting and recyclirlg programs as part of the waste solution to reduce greenhouse gas production and waste generation. Acknowledgements I express my sincere thanks to Dr. Shirley Thompson, Dr, Nicola Koper and Randall Shymko for their continuous support and guidance throughout the project. Without them this project would not have been possible. I also sincerely thank Environment Canada for supporting this project financially and also for their invaluable background knowledge, experience and advice. I also thank Jennifer Sawyer, Jeff Valdivia, and Bhanu Duggirala for their support and help. Finally, I also extend my gratitude to Mrs. Dalia Naguib and Ms. Tamara Keedwell for their patience, support and dedication. llt Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my guru Sri Sadguru Sainath. I also dedicate this thesis to nty parents and to my wife for their support. IV Table of Contents vl List of Tables and Figures Chapter 2 Tables Table I : Vy'aste generation by source and by province. .. ...09 Table 2:The size of Canadian households. ......11 Table 3: Waste disposalby source and by province. ...........13 Table 4: Waste disposal, diversion and generation per capita by province . ... ......14 Table 5: Waste diversion by source and by province. ... ... 16 Table 6: Greenhouse gas emissions and savings using recycled material. ..........18 Table 7: Net greenhouse emissions from waste management options. .....25 Figures Figure 1: Solid waste generation and GDP... ............10 Figure Z:Material recycled by type. ......20 Figure 3: Recycling rate for C & D waste in Denmark. ......30 Chapter 4 Tables Table l: Programs and Policies to Improve Waste Management....... .....43 Table2: Summary of Mean Averages and Standard Deviation of Audited Waste Composition for Each province (by weight). ............41 Table 3: Canada's municipalsolid waste classified by source. ......48 Table 4:National survey findings for97 (active sites) of 130landfills organized by province. ......49 Table 5: Simple Linear model summary for Disposal Fees vs. Waste Diverted...... ......50 Table 6: Simple Linear model summary for DisposalFees vs. Density....... ......51 Table 7: Simple Linear model summary for Disposal Fees vs. Depth. ....,...51 vll Table 8: Simple Linear model summary for Depth vs. Compaction of Waste.............53 Figures Figure l: Waste Composition (by weight) from audits of 17 landfills across Canada. ........47 Figure 2: Waste diversion (tonnes) versus Disposal fees .. ............50 Figure 3: Density of Waste in kg/cubic meter versus Disposal Fee for 9J Canadian landfills. .......51 Figure 4: Landfill Depth versus Disposal Fee for 97 Canadian landfills. ............52 Figure 5:Density of waste versus Depth of landfills across for97 active landfiIls.........53 Figure 6: Landfill Waste Capacity Scenarios from 97 active landfill sites. ........54 Chapter 5 Tables Table l:Characteristics of 29 of 30 active LFG plojects by Province....... ........61 Table 2: Parameter estimates of the five independent variables associated with methane production rates from 29 active landfill in the final model, ............68 Table 3: Accuracy of model based on 29 active landfills compared to methane recovery rates.. .........71 Chapter 6 Tables Table l: Net GHG emission factors (MTCOze/tonne) from MSW management options compared to landfilling...... ...............79 Figures Figure 1: Greenhouse emissions saved by composting and recycling including saving embodied energy in products. ..........82 vlll Statistics Canada information is used with the permission of Statistics Canada. Users are forbidden to copy the data and redissentinate them, in an original or modified forru, for commercial purposes, without permission from Statistics Canada. Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from Slatistics Canada's Regional Offices, its lI¡orld Wide Web site at www.statcan.gc.ca, and its toll-f"ee access nuntber 1-800-263-l 136. IX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION l.I Background Until our society stops viewing material as disposable and sees it as cyclical and a valuable resource, energy and material are wasted. A sense of urgency to change this perspective is emerging for solid waste managers in OECD countries, because in these nations municipal solid waste increased by 40% between 1980 and l99l and is predicted to increase by a further 40% by 2020 (King et al,, 2006). Total amount of waste generated in Canada increased by 17% between 1980 and 7997 , and became the worst performer on this indicator (Boyd, 2001). Within 16 year, from 1990 to 2006, Canada increased its waste disposal in landfillsby 240/0, tarnishing Canada's already poor environlnentaltracl<