LAWR

" Performance in terms of carbon emissions per tonne of waste handled vary significantly " Waste Handling The natural reaction on seeing such plots is to question what the individual councils are doing that drives the results. To answer that, we need to go down a further level. Graph 3 shows how the different material fates contribute to the overall average South Gloucestershire emission factor. The horizontal axis shows the contribution (weight %) and the vertical axis the carbon emission factor per tonne – this means the area of each block reflects the contribution of each material fate. The overall plot indicates that carbon savings (negative values, to the left) associated with recycling and composting (light and dark greens) are counter-balanced by carbon emissions from MBT and landfill (light and dark blues, to the right), such that the net impact (red dashed line) is close to zero (in fact, -93 kg of CO2eq per tonne of waste handled). For recycling, metal provides the greatest overall contribution, combining a high carbon benefit per tonne with being a moderate fraction (2.4%) of South Gloucestershire's waste. More paper is collected for recycling, but the lower emission factor means it does not have as big an influence. August 2015 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 25 their own carbon analysis and scenario planning, which they have used to support service changes. This goes into more detail by including capital burdens, vehicle fuel usage and building energy consumption, and has enabled the council to prioritise possible service interventions. So what have we learned from this data? Local authority performance in terms of carbon emissions per tonne of waste handled vary significantly across the nations and regions of the UK. There are many contributing factors, but recycling levels and landfill diversion are seen to be particularly important. South West Government Office Region Graph 2. South West Government office region South Gloucestershire ← 1.9% Plas+cs ← 2.4% Metals ↑ Paper & Card 9.5% ↓ 5.0% Glass ↓ 18.2% Garden ↑ 3.7% Food ↑ 15.8% Landfill ← 0.8% Tex+les (-5,900 kg CO 2 e/t) ↓ 33.4% MBT ← 1.5% WEEE ↑ 4.6% Other (e.g. Rubble) Graph 3. South Gloucestershire North East England is the top region because of its use of recovery technologies and low reliance on landfill, whilst Wales is close behind with its high recycling performance. The overall carbon contribution is made up of a range of influences and by looking at this detailed level we are able to advise authorities on their current carbon position and how they could make improvements. Chris Hoy is a senior consultant, Simon Gandy is knowledge leader for waste modelling, and Adam Read is practice director for resource efficiency & waste management, all at Ricardo-AEA In contrast, green waste represents over 18% of South Gloucestershire's managed waste, but has a low carbon benefit, so does not contribute significantly to the overall result. Landfill dominates South Gloucestershire's carbon emission impacts, due to both its quantity (16%) and its emissions factor (+463 kg/t). Nevertheless, this is much less than many other authorities, as South Gloucestershire uses MBT to manage a large proportion of residual waste. We have supported South Gloucestershire Council by providing them with a carbon model to conduct

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