Quantifying Municipal Solid Waste Management in the U.S. Using a Facility-based Methodology

摘要

The use of a facility-based, bottom-up methodology is key to increasing accuracy of MSW management estimates (Powell et. al., 2015). The use of such methodology to estimate MSW managed in the U.S. suggests that 347 million tons of MSW were managed in 2013, or approximately 6 lbs/capita-day. Of this, the majority of waste was landfilled, with 27% recovered via recycling and composting combined. Results represent a 37% difference in total MSW managed compared to US EPA estimates for the same year, with the largest difference for landfilled tonnage (65% difference; Table 3). A large difference for landfilled MSW compared to US EPA has also been documented in other facility-based estimates (Powell et al, 2015). Landfills have consistently been listed as one of the largest sources of anthropogenic methane in the United States by entities such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the US EPA (USEPA, 2007). As such, accurate estimates of MSW generation and management are key to understanding the environmental impact of end-of-life material management decisions and assess the nationwide progress toward material recovery and sustainable materials management goals. Studies suggest that current inputs from US EPA material flow models may not provide accurate data for these efforts, however, with facility-based results suggesting that managed tonnage is greater than US EPA estimates (Table 3).