Comparison of South African GHG emission factors for recycling
with international factors
The GHG emission factors on recycling have been summarised
and are compared with other factors from the literature. This comparison
is presented in Table 10.
Following international trends, the recycling of all waste materials
investigated show GHG savings. However, as seen from Table
10 the recycling of some waste components (e.g. aluminium
and steel) have much higher GHG savings in South Africa as compared
to other parts of the world. This is due to the high carbon
intensity of these processes and the use of electricity, derived from
coal, for the production of virgin materials that these components
replace when recycled. These results underline the interdependency
of the waste management processes and the energy system
in which they operate, with South Africa as a typical example of
carbon intensive energy dependency. Many developing countries,
most notably China and India, are also in this position. The emission
factors calculated also highlight that when considering GHG
from recycling, and in general from waste management a holistic,
life cycle approach has to be used to reflect best the overall emissions
or savings from waste management processes.
As stated in the Integrated Resource Plan 2010–2030 (RSA –
Department of Energy, 2011) South Africa aims to decrease its coal
dependency and to increase the proportion of energy from renewable
resources. Therefore, in long term the GHG emissions for electricity
are expected to decrease. These changes have to be taken
into account when calculating GHG emission factors for recycling
municipal solid waste and these factors should be revised periodically
to reflect progress with regard to the use of renewable
resources