introduction for materials management and climate change
TRANSCRIPT
Connecting Materials and Our Stuff
to Climate Change
Shannon Davis
EPA Region 9 Tribal Solid Waste Team
415-972-3440
www.westcoastclimateforum.com
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Harvesting
traditional
foods, which
threatened by
climate
change, is
important to
native culture,
health and
economic well
being.
NCA, 2014
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Recurring drought
and rising
temperatures
accelerate growth
and movement of
sand dunes
National Climate
Assessment, 2014
Materials Management
and Climate ChangeAn Introduction
www.westcoastclimateforum/materials
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Overview
Overview
1) Greenhouse gas connection to materials
2) Role of materials management
3) Ways to reduce material-related greenhouse gases
4) West Coast Forum Resources
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Materials Consumption6
Source: U.S. Inventory of GHG Emissions and Sinks : 1990-2006 (US EPA, 2008)
Electrical Power Industry
33%
Transportation27%
Industry19%
Commericial Building
6%
Residential Building
5%
Agriculture8%
Waste2%
US Greenhouse Gas Emissions (2006)7
Source: U.S. Inventory of GHG Emissions and Sinks : 1990-2006 (US EPA, 2008)
US Greenhouse Gas Emissions (2006)8
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Define “materials”.10
WASTE management vs. MATERIALS management
Product Lifecycle11
Landfill
Lifecycle of Steel
Use
Recycling Distribution
ManufacturingProcessingResource
Extraction
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Lifecycle GHG Emissions
GHG
GHG
GHG
GHG
GHG
GHG
GHG
GHG
GHG
Photo credit: flickr Nick Bramhall, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 license
Reducing the Impacts of Our Consumption15
Energy Use: Recycled vs. Virgin Content Products
(million BTUs/ ton)
Recycling Conserves Energy16
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10
0
80
70
mil
lio
ns
of
ton
s
EPA 2008 Facts and Figures
60
50
40
30
20
Recycled
Generated
Recycling vs. Waste Generation18
39 million
cars off the road
22 million
homes heated/
year
50
power plants
avoided
400 million
barrels of oil
conserved
Impacts from Recycling Rate (33%)19
Cost effectiveness of GHG reduction strategies20
Lifecycle StudyTropicana Orange Juice
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Source: A study commissioned by Oregon Dept of Environmental Quality
Disposal vs Reusable
Plastic bottle, disposed
Plastic bottle, recycled
Tap water, reusable bottle
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
Relative greenhouse gas emissions of water comsumption options
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EPA Resources:
• Electronic purchasing: http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/products/epeat/index.htm
• Recycled content purchasing: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/waste/calculators/ReCon_home.html
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
greenhouse gas emissions
recycled content
water consumption
energy efficiency
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Shipping bags – even if made from virgin resources and not recycled – have lower environmental burdens in most categories than cardboard boxes – even if the boxes contain high levels of recycled content.
PackagingSource: A study commissioned by Oregon Dept of Environmental Quality
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Source: Oregon DEQ, Cascadia GBC
Building Materials25
26Design for Deconstruction
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• Report
• Waste characterizations from
Three west coast states
• Identified high priority materials:
• Food
• Carpet
• Dimensional lumber
• Mixed recyclables
Climate
Action
Toolkit
Reduced ConsumptionPhoto credit: flickr user jesusali, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 license
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Food:
Too Good
To Waste
Toolkit
Climate Friendly Government
Purchasing Toolkit
• “How to” for doing GHG inventory
• Guidance on institutional spending categories
• Where purchasing occurs and how sustainable purchasing standards are set
• Guidance for each high impact category
Collaborative Consumption33
Lending Libraries34
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West Coast Climate Forum
Materials Management PowerPoint
Forum Resource Page including Webinars
EPA’s WARM Tool
EPA’s ReCon Tool
Annie Leonard: The Story of Stuff
Thank you!
Questions?
Comments?
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