Greenhouse Gas Emissions Considerations

Removal of Organics from Landfill

Disposal of organic (food) waste into a landfill leads to the decomposition of the organics under anaerobic conditions, resulting in the production of methane gas. Methane gas is 25 times more potent a GHG gas than Carbon Dioxide (CO2). The Regional Landfill currently has infrastructure to capture methane gas, which is flared reducing the methane gas to the less potent CO2. The current process of disposing of organics (food waste) in landfill contributes approximately 14,675 tonnes of CO2 through the decomposition of organic waste. The City currently disposes of approximately 10,000 tonnes of food waste every year.

Additional GHG emissions can be attributed to the transportation of wastes. A successful program that diverts food waste from landfill has the opportunity to reduce these emissions.

Trucking of Organics outside the municipality

The City will consider the option of transporting waste to an existing third party processing facility to avoid the capital costs associated with construction of a new facility. Location of the receiving facility, type of waste transported and quantity of waste will impact costs. Additional processing facilities such as a transfer station or sorting facility may be required in this scenario. In addition, transporting of waste outside Windsor/Essex would have negligible Community Benefits (i.e. additional GHG emissions due to trucking, in ability to realize the GHG reductions noted above and no bi-product benefit).

Composting

Composting organic matter under aerobic conditions, results in the creation of a stable organic material (compost) through microbial action. However, even well managed compost operations will have pockets of anaerobic activity which will emit GHG emissions of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O).

Traditional composting of organic waste (e.g. windrows) will not lead to further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions beyond those mentioned due to the removal of organics from landfill.

Advanced Composting Technologies

New advanced composting technologies include processes where organics are dried creating a bio-fuel. This bio-fuel can be combusted to create renewable electricity. The GHG reduction potential will be tied to carbon intensity of the Ontario Electricity system.