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Greenhouse gas reduction potential by household waste prevention

  • SPECIAL FEATURE: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Material Cycles toward Carbon Neutral Society
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Abstract

We used a life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach to estimate the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction effects of preventing 50% of all avoidable household waste in Kyoto City, Japan. The LCA targeted 18 prevention behaviors and 32 avoidable products in household waste. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the impacts of 1% increases in prevention behavior and avoidable product and raw material prevention for reducing GHGs. Compared to the baseline scenario, the prevention scenario demonstrated a 120,000 t CO2eq/y emissions rate in response to preventing 50% of all avoidable products. Improving dietary habits had the greatest GHG reduction effect, followed by avoiding single-use products and beverage and seasoning bottles. Preventing raw materials from food and plastic production substantially reduced GHG emissions. Mitigating the production of avoidable products with and without product substitution contributed to the GHG reduction efficacy of prevention behavior. An additional 1% prevention could increase GHG reductions by 0.56–380 t CO2eq/y per avoidable product and by 13–380 t CO2eq/y per prevention behavior. However, electricity generation via incineration and the GHG emissions intensity associated with producing substituted products would influence the GHG reduction potential.

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Data availability

All data used for this study have been included in the manuscript and the supplementary material.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (JPMEERF20153K01 and JPMEERF20223001) from the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Environmental Management, Agency for Health, Safety and Environment, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Junya Yano, Junichiro Koshiba & Yasuhiro Hirai

  2. Environmental Impact Assessment Division, Ministry’s Secretariat, Ministry of the Environment, 1-2-2, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-8975, Japan

    Ritsuki Yanagawa

  3. Advanced Science, Technology and Management Research Institute of KYOTO, Chudoji Minamimachi 134, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto, 600-8813, Japan

    Shinichi Sakai

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  1. Junya Yano
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  2. Ritsuki Yanagawa
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Correspondence to Junya Yano.

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Yano, J., Yanagawa, R., Koshiba, J. et al. Greenhouse gas reduction potential by household waste prevention. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 25, 1792–1806 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-023-01647-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-023-01647-2

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