Greenhouse Gases Emissions and Factors Influencing Sustainable Solid Waste Management Based on The Circular Economy Indicators: The City Case in Thailand

¹ Environmental Research Institute Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
² Hub of Waste Management for Sustainable Development, Center of Excellence on Hazardous Substance Management, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand 10330

^* Corresponding author: suthirat.k@gmail.com

Abstract

Climate change is currently recognized as one of the most sustainability challenges of our era. Accelerated actions to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are urgently needed in all sectors, including the waste sector. This study aimed to qualify GHG emissions from waste management in one of high-income cities in Thailand and to evaluate factors influencing effective solid waste management based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for weighting the modified OECD inventory of circular economy indicators. By employing the IPCC default method and the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions, the key findings showed that municipal landfill located in the case city emitted the largest share of total emissions in the waste sector between 2018 and 2022 (445,112 – 501,761 tCO_2e/year, 0.21-0.24 tCO_2e/capita/year of emission intensity). Meanwhile, biological treatment of municipal solid waste (composting) emitted only 24,240.45 tCO_2e/year (506.33 tCH₄/year and 37.97 N₂O/year). Besides, the AHP analysis revealed that governance factors (i.e., awareness raising, stakeholder engagement) had the highest AHP score (0.3717), followed by environmental benefits (i.e., emission reduction) (0.3542), infrastructure and technology (0.1754), respectively. Interestingly, economic aspects and job creation represented the lowest AHP score (0.0475 – 0.0512). Overall, co-benefits of GHG mitigation and sustainable municipal solid waste (i.e. environmental and socio-economic aspects), stakeholder partnership and good governance in municipal solid waste management should be holistic integrated in strategic planning at city level.