title: Greenhouse gas footprint and the carbon flow associated with different solid waste management strategy for urban metabolism in Bangladesh.
abstract: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from municipal solid waste (MSW) and associated climate change consequences are gripping attention globally, while MSW management as a vital subsystem of urban metabolism significantly influences the urban carbon cycles. This study evaluates the GHG emissions and carbon flow of existing and proposed MSW management in Bangladesh through scenario analysis, including landfill with landfill gas (LFG) recovery, waste to energy (WtE), and material recovery facility (MRF). The analysis indicates that, scenario H2and H5emitted net GHGs -152.20kg CO2eq. and -140.32kg CO2eq., respectively, in comparison with 420.88kg CO2eq. of scenario H1for managing per ton of wastes during the reference year 2015. The annual horizontal carbon flux of the waste input was 319Gg and 158Gg during 2015 in Dhaka and Chittagong, respectively. An integrated strategy of managing the wastes in the urban areas of Bangladesh involving WtE incineration plant and LFG recovery to generate electricity as well as MRF could reverse back 209.46Gg carbon and 422.29Gg carbon to the Chittagong and Dhaka urban system, respectively. This study provides valuable insights for the MSW policy framework and revamp of existing MSW management practices with regards to reduction of GHGs emissions from the waste sector in Bangladesh.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh. Electronic address: nazmul@ifescu.ac.bd.
authors.forename: K M Nazmul
authors.initials: KMN
authors.lastname: Islam
keywords: Carbon footprint; Circular economy; Industrial ecology and sustainable city; Urban metabolism