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 The Solid Waste Management (SWM) problem |
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 Latin
American and Caribbean (LAC) region
is highly urbanized, with on average
75% of its 500 million inhabitants
living in cities, mainly large cities,
thus leading to the concentration
of solid waste and corresponding
waste management problems. Most
LAC cities still dispose of MSW
in open dumps creating problems
of leachate contamination of surface
and groundwater and release of landfill
gas to the atmosphere. The more
important and prosperous cities
in LAC have begun to improve disposal
practice and have introduced sanitary
landfills, however the issue of
treating and reusing LFG emissions
has not been addressed yet, few
cities in Chile actively collected
landfill gas and utilized it for
energy production in the past. Today,
only one city is currently collecting
LFG and generating electric energy,
i.e.: Monterrey, Mexico (with GEF
support) and two others, Nova Gerar
in Brazil and Maldonado in Uruguay
(with GEF support) are planning
to do so. In contrast to this limited
beneficial use of LFG in LAC, the
experience worldwide is that there
are more than 1200 LFG plants for
energy purposes. Thus there is a
significant opportunity to increase
LFG recovery and utilization at
landfills in the LAC region, provided
that the appropriate market conditions
exist. |
| Why is it interesting for the Environmental and Power Sector of the Latin American region of the World Bank? |
|
 
LFG capture addresses two main global
and local environmental concerns,
i.e: it helps improve SWM practices
by addressing health and safety
concerns and reduces methane emissions,
a potent global warming gas;
The revenues from the commercialization
of carbon credits and energy represent
an economic incentive that may leverage
additional funding and catalyze
better practices in SWM, particularly
in cities that are planning to develop
final disposal facilities, moving
from dumping to land filling;
The main environmental and human
health risks related to poor SWM
practices evidenced in Latin America
and other regions are: contamination
of underground and superficial water,
land contamination, greenhouse effect,
infectious vectors, contamination
of food chain, poor air quality,
accidental fire and explosions,
odors, etc. |
| More details on LFG-to-Energy |
|
 Feasible
LFG collection and utilization is
normally limited to large and deep
landfills (for example, over one
million tons of waste in place with
a depth of 12-20 meters). It is
also necessary that the LFG project
can be interconnected to an urban
power grid or gas distribution network,
or is close to some energy end user.
In the case of LAC, this would limit
promising applications to the large
and intermediate cities. In LAC,
there are currently 117 cities of
greater than 500,000 population,
with a total of 225 million inhabitants
and generating some 74 million tons
per year (tpd) of solid waste. A
back-of-the-envelope calculation,
assuming that half of these cities
would meet the above general criteria
for feasible LFG projects, estimates
that the present annual energy generation
potential from LFG would be on the
order of 800 MW (assuming steady
state and 30% conversion efficiency)
. For a city of one million population
generating about 740 tpd of solid
waste (270,100 tons/yr), the present
annual energy potential would be
5.9 MW.
Further, if an international carbon
market is established, it is likely
that the incentive to generate carbon
credits from LFG capture and use
will be high in LAC cities, as not
only would one be reducing GHGs
directly by reducing methane emissions
to the atmosphere, but also by displacing
fossil fuel if the gas is used for
energy purposes. The potential international
carbon market in LAC from LFG exploitation
could be on the order of US$ 100
million a year.1 This figure could
be higher as currently the calculation
does not take into account carbon
which is substituted from fossil
fuels. Note also that; the actual
carbon abatement cost for LFG appears
to be around US$4/tC for large cities,
based on the existing landfill gas
projects in the GEF portfolio and
published estimates. Thus, it is
a very competitive option for carbon
abatement.
Given the current limited development
of LFG projects in LAC and the promising
potential demand for LFG investments
and corresponding energy supplies,
the World Bank’s LAC Regional
Office (LCR) is currently in the
process of formulating a regional
strategy on landfill gas. This project
will contribute to that effort.
While an aggressive strategy for
LFG recovery and utilization in
the region is warranted, success
will depend on having good local
capacity for urban waste management
along with effective national policy
frameworks for non-conventional
energy and environmental management.
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