Top: Manual sorting of municipal solid waste.  Photo courtesy SCS Engineers, Madison, WI

The U.S. EPA, on behalf of the Global Methane Initiative (GMI), developed a Waste Characterization Handbook and accompanying Excel tool to help decision-makers and solid waste professionals plan and conduct waste characterization studies to evaluate waste stream compositions. The Handbook targets city decision-makers and solid waste professionals. It includes recommended activities and resources to help plan an appropriate type of study for specific site conditions; conduct field activities to collect the data; and analyze the data to help make informed solid waste planning decisions. The Waste Characterization Planning and Data Tool streamlines data entry and provides instant graphics to visualize the data entered during the study. Resulting data can be used in existing GMI tools to better understand organic waste management and methane mitigation options. For example, data on specific organic waste types and quantities (e.g., mixed food waste, coffee grounds, bananas) can be entered into the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Screening Tool to assess AD project feasibility. Outputs include annual biogas and digestate production, methane emissions reductions, and potential end uses of biogas. Access the tools at this link.