Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Waste Sector: An Environmental Perspective

1. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Waste Sector: An Environmental Perspective Scott Smithline, Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs Californians Against Waste (916) 443-5422 ● scottsmithline@cawrecycles.org CIWMB Climate Change WorkshopMay 8th, 2007

2. AB 32: The Environmental Perspective Overview • The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory • Early Action Measures • Mandatory Reporting • Significant GHG emission reductions from recycling, composting

3. GHG Emissions Inventory • What it is • A stock and flow carbon tracking system • Baseline for statewide 2020 reductions under AB32 • What it isn’t • Not a system for carbon credit trading • Not independently useful as a policy tool • Doesn’t show opportunities for GHG reductions from recycling and composting

4. GHG Emissions Inventory (cont’d) • Inventory does not accurately reflect the emissions from landfills • Landfilled lumber: • Double counted? • Is it a true “sink”? • High levels of uncertainty using FOD model • Does not account for WIP going to decomp before gas collection installed/turned on • CIWMB/CEC study too late • When it is due: January 1, 2008

5. ARB Early Action Measure • ARB/CAT/CIWMB • ARB is proposing an early action measure to target increased methane recovery from landfills without gas collection systems • Good first step, but more useful distinction is how much WIP is/is not under the influence of a LFG collection system - regardless of whether a system is installed in LF. • Expand: EAM to include diversion options or minimum time without collection. • When: June 30, 2007

6. ARB Mandatory Reporting • What is it: ARB to adopt regs for reporting and verification of emissions from sources • Who has to do it: …Not Landfills (yet) • Information is needed on waste in active areas of landfills or other areas that do not have active gas collection running at full capacity. • Landfills should be required to report in the first group of reporting industries • When: January 1, 2008

7. GHG Reductions through Organics Diversion • Avoided methane emissions at landfills • Additional GHG reduction mechanisms • Reduced water transport emissions • Reduced N2O Emissions • Increased Crop storage of CO2 • Carbon Storage in Soil

8. GHG Reductions through Organics Diversion (cont’d) • Benefits of composting are NOTspeculative - just not well quantified yet • Critical for CIWMB to facilitate the use of compost, as well as the siting of new compost facilities • CIWMB should investigate ADC as a barrier to GHG reduction

9. GHG Avoidance ThroughIncreased Commercial Recycling • The commercial sector is highly underserved by the recycling industry • At 65% of disposed waste, it offers an opportunity to substantially reduce greenhouse gases while stimulating the economy

10. Potential Avoided Emissions at 35% Diversion

11. Landfills Are Not the Answer • Regulating landfills is important - enough WIP to justify requiring new emission reduction practices • But even the strongest emission reductions from LF’s do not compare to the possible avoided emissions from reducing, reusing, and recycling the materials instead of disposing of them • Even at 100% LFG collection efficiency: the best we can say is that we have minimized the pollution from wasting 40 million tons of resources • The reality is every ton of WIP represents multiple tons of avoided GHG emissions not achieved

12. Thank You Scott Smithline, Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs Californians Against Waste (916) 443-5422 ● scottsmithline@cawrecycles.org