Carbon emissions footprint across the waste life cycle
While the broader sustainability credentials of effective waste management are readily acknowledged, there have been some lingering questions about the carbon footprint of waste management, which contributes about 3.3% of total global emissions, with ~2% from landfills.
Emissions arise throughout the waste management value chain and over different time scales.
Waste collection contributes around 6-8% of emissions for an integrated waste management company involved across all life cycle stages. These emissions all occur in the year the collection occurs.