Potential greenhouse gas emissions and reduction from municipal solid waste management in Phnom Penh municipality

This study evaluates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reduction potential from municipal solid waste management (MSWM) following the IPCC 2006 guidelines. Under different MSWM scenarios of Phnom Penh municipality, this study quantifies GHG emissions from transportation, open burning, composting, recycling, anaerobic digestion (AD), incineration, and landfilling municipal solid waste. The study also considers the GHG emissions avoided as a benefit of recycling and electricity generation from incineration and AD. Various waste separation rates are used to evaluate the effectiveness of source segregation in GHG mitigation. The results show that the most significant net GHG emission saving is under scenario 5, avoiding about 1.15 M kg CO₂-eq/day with treatment affords 389 t/day of organic waste, 714 t/day of mixed recyclables, 777 t/day of digestible food waste, and 1,280 t/day of commingled waste via composting, recycling, AD, and incineration, respectively. The worst-case scenario represents the current MSWM method, which generates the highest GHG emissions of 3.13 M kg CO₂-eq/day. This is due to the open burning of uncollected waste (211 t/day) and landfilling (2,835 t/day). Based on the analysis, an integrated MSWM system along with source separation for recycling and resource recovery purposes is highly recommended as it leads to the most significant reduction in environmental impacts. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the practical implications of policy frameworks for MSWM, specifically in terms of GHG emissions reduction. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.