Calculation of greenhouse gas emissions from municipal solid waste in İstanbul

Besides its adverse effects on human health and the environment for centuries, municipal solid waste is also a source contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. The waste sector which is responsible for less (above of 5%) human-induced greenhouse gas emissions compared to sources such as energy production and consumption, land usei land use changes and forestry (LULUCF), industry emits methane, an important non-CO2 greenhouse gas. The majority of this methane, which has a 25 times higher effect than the crbondioxide's potential of trapping heat in the atmosphere, arises from municipal solid waste disposal. It is clear that municipal solid waste – a source of global warming – whose quantity is increasing and composition is getting complex depending on such factors as population increase, economic growth, changes in consumption patterns all over the world, is one of the issues that humanity has to deal with. In the national greenhouse gas inventory prepared by Turkey for the year of 2016, the total (gross) greenhouse gas emission from waste sector (excluding wastewater and industrial solid waste) is indicated as 17,7 million tons of CO2equivelant. In the national inventory, emissions from waste scetor are estimated by using the methodology and emission factors that presented in IPCC (2006) guidelines. Total (gross) greenhouse gases emission from municipal solid waste in Istanbul corresponds to 3,3 million tons of CO2eq according to inventory where the estimations are on the basis of solid waste generation per capita. However it can be seen that the quality of data on the municipal solid waste source in Turkey is weak and the national inventory has highly uncertain estimations that are based on too common assumptions. In this thesis study, it is estimated that the greenhouse gases emissions in Istanbul - the most populous city of country – are estimated by using the methods indicated in IPCC (2006) guidelines and city-specific data which is available for Istanbul. During the study, it comes out that the records related on solid wastes are not healthy enough and reaching data for some years is almost impossible. Despite the difficulties in data collection, the total (gross) greenhouse gases emission from municipal solid waste for Istanbul is higher (5,6 MtCO2eq) than the value given in the national inventory. In the context of the study, it is deduced that emissions from municipal solid waste should be estimated at local scale, the data on waste management should be monitored regularly and the information should be shared with public transperantly.