Assessing the climate change mitigation potential from food waste composting

Urban Farm DB summary

Continuous micrometeorological mass-balance measurements of greenhouse gas emissions from commercial-scale windrow food-waste composting found emission factors of 6.6–8.8 kg CH4–C and 0.01 kg N2O–N per Mg of wet food waste, for a combined emission factor of 926 kgCO2e per Mg of dry food waste. Composting emissions were 38–84% lower than equivalent landfilling, with a projected minimum net savings of 1.4 MMT CO2e for California by 2025.

Only numbers and their conditions are stored, as structured data — never the source's own sentences. Metric and condition names stay in English, as coded.

• 6.6–8.8 kg_ch4c_per_mg_wet_food_waste

  ch4 emission factor(food waste composting)

  Climate

  method

  micrometeorological mass balance, commercial-scale windrow

• 0.01 kg_n2on_per_mg_wet_food_waste

  n2o emission factor(food waste composting)

  Climate

  method

  micrometeorological mass balance, commercial-scale windrow

• 926 kgco2e_per_mg_dry_food_waste

  overall emission factor(food waste composting)

  Climate
• 38–84 %↓ Decrease

  emissions vs landfill(food waste composting)

  ClimateControl: equivalent landfilling
• 1.4 mmt_co2e

  projected net ghg savings(california food waste composting)

  Climate

  region

  California

  year

  2025

  note

  minimum projected savings

Direction of conclusions

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• Carbon / GHGSupports