The Potential of Ghg Emission Savings for Programmatic Cdm by Municipal Solid Waste Composting in the Western Province

Abstract

The Potential of GHG Emission Savings for Programmatic CDM by Municipal Solid Waste Composting in the Western Province, B.Sc Dissertation, Kariyakarawana VKDH (2011) Abstract The higher level of municipal solid waste (MSW) generation in Sri Lanka is due to increased consumption patterns as well as the movement of the people from the rural areas to urban centers. The Western Province (WP) is the most populated province in the country with 5.4 million people and a daily floating population of more than 1.5 million. It was found in the study that the daily collection rate of MSW in the entire WP is around 2000 tons per day. According to the composition analyses held in five Local Authorities (Dehiwala-Mt. Lavinia MC, Horana UC, Kesbewa PS, Kaluthara PS and Kelaniya PS) during the study, it can be concluded that the biodegradable portion dominates the bulk of MSW in WP as about 76.30%. Average composition found was: paper 5.77%; food waste 55.49%; garden waste 15.04%; metals 1.07%; plastics 2.14%; polythene 7.90%; glass 1.95% and other remaining 11.43%. Generally the biodegradable portion is mainly due to food and yard waste, typical of developing countries. Out of the 48 administrative Local Authorities within the WP, only 16 Local Authorities are practicing MSW composting. All the other Local Authorities are practicing the most common method of MSW disposal; open dumping which contributes to a continuous emission of methane gas to the atmosphere in high quantities. Global warming due to GHG emission is a major concerned environmental issue all over the world. Programmatic Cleaner Development Mechanism (pCDM) which is one of the flexibility mechanisms of Kyoto protocol affiliated with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) facilitates industrialized countries to reduce their GHG emission through developing countries. Among the 15 categories of CDM project types, avoidance of methane emission of open dumps by adopting composting is an opportunity for Sri Lanka to claim carbon credits from industrialized countries. Application of pCDM for MSW composting is suitable for the Sri Lankan scenario because it can be applied for several clustered small scale composting activities as a single group. The study aimed at finding the potential of GHG emission savings by MSW composting in 32 Local Authorities of the WP which are not currently practicing MSW composting in order to quantify the CER which can be claimed for that. It can be conclude that the required emission saving level can be fulfilled with regard to the Western Province where, annually 231 kt of GHG emission can be avoided by MSW composting. Key words: CDM, pCDM, Climate change, Global warming, Green house gasses, Municipal solid waste, Compost