Carbon Footprint of Recycling Service in Waste Treatment: Used Beverage Cans and Waste Papers

Abstract

There are very few studies of the Carbon Footprint of Products (CFPs) in the service sector (e.g. transport and waste treatment) in comparison with those of industrial products and farm products. In this study, the CFPs of the recycling services of used beverage cans (aluminum and steel) and waste papers (cardboard, magazine and newspaper) in waste treatment were estimated as a first trial model of the service sector. Regarding the CFPs of whole life cycle of the recycling services, the amounts of CO 2 -equivalent (CO 2 e) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the collection and transportation process were the largest in all recycling cases. The reason that the collection and transportation process emits the largest amounts of GHG emissions is that the collection vehicles (trucks) consume the large amounts of diesel fuel. Regarding the CFPs of the capital equipment, the amounts of GHG emissions from the capital equipment were the second largest in all recycling cases. It was found that the percentages of amounts of GHG emissions from the capital equipment in the recycling services were larger than those of industrial products and farm products.