Proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management,

5 - 7 September 2007, Chennai, India. pp.511-518

Application of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for Solid

Waste Management in Developing Countries: A Case Study for
Bangkok, Thailand
Indra Gurung and Chongrak Polprasert

Environmental Engineering and Management Program School of Environment,

Resources and Development Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, Thailand
Email: indragurung33@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Open dumping and landfillng are the most practiced systems for municipal solid waste
management in many developing countries, both of which are known to result in significant
greenhouse gases emission, particularly methane that has significantly higher effect on global
warming. Mitigation of greenhouse gases emissions by applying Clean Development
Mechanism; a project based mechanism has become a thought provoking option in the recent
decade. The case study conducted for Bangkok city based on the analysis of different scenarios
reveals that waste minimization and waste-to-energy are the most attractive options to be
applied as clean development mechanism in the sector. Therefore, waste minimization
activities such as implementation of reduce, reuse and recycle and technology transfer such as
Mechanical Biological Waste treatment for pretreatment of waste as well as capturing
methane to generate electricity (waste-to-energy) from the landfills have to be encouraged in
order to mitigate the methane emission from the sector in future.

Keywords: municipal solid waste, developing countries, greenhouse gases, clean development
mechanism, waste minimization, waste-to-energy.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a project based mechanism has become a thought provoking
option in the recent decade in mitigating GHGs emissions. It is a mechanism for promoting
technology transfer and investment from developed countries to the developing countries for projects
to reduce the emissions of GHGs (UNESCAP, 2003). The potential CDM mechanisms that are being
applied or can be applied in the MSW management sector in developing countries could be wastes-to-
energy such as capturing landfill gas and generate electricity, anaerobic digestion of organic fraction
of wastes and production of biofuel or biogas, composting, incineration, and cogeneration as well as
minimization of waste volume that would be sent to landfill. The main objective of this study is to
evaluate the feasibility of applying CDM strategy and its environmental and economic impacts on
solid waste management of Bangkok city, Thailand.

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2.0 MATERIALS AND METHODS

Bangkok city, the capital of Thailand was chosen for the study as it is currently facing rapid economic
growth, urbanization, industrialization and change in lifestyle as well as consumption pattern of the
city dwellers. The first part of the study was to collect the necessary data and information on the
existing solid wastes management practices, status of implementation of reduce, reuse and recycle
(3R) principle and landfill gas management. Both primary and secondary data were used for the
study. Primary data were collected through field visits, questionnaire surveys and informal interviews
conducted among the senior officials from only few selected government and private organizations,
academia and communities. Secondary data were collected through intensive literature reviews of past
studies, reports and relevant documents. In the second part, calculation of CH4 emission and reduction
estimation was done for three different scenarios for the selected options or strategies: wastes
minimization through 3R and pretreatment by Mechanical Biological Waste Treatment (MBWT); and
waste-to-energy. The scenarios considered for this study were as follows:

2.1 Scenario I: 0% CDM Application

The present status of emissions and emissions reduction in both the cases were considered to be
remained as it is i.e. no further activities will be applied in addition to the existing situation. Therefore
the existing condition is considered as 0% CDM application and the values obtained were considered
as baseline values.

2.2 Scenario II: 50% CDM Application

In this scenario, 50% of disposable wastes were assumed to be subjected to 3R or MBWT treatment
before sending to landfill as well as 50% of the total landfill area were assumed to utilize for CH4
capture and were assumed to be subjected to electricity generation or flaring.

2.3 Scenario III: 100% CDM Application

In this scenario, 100% of disposable wastes were assumed to be subjected to 3R or MBWT treatment
before sending to landfill and 100% of the total landfill area were assumed to utilize for CH4 capture
and were assumed to be subjected to electricity generation or flaring.

For the estimation of CH4 emission reductions that can be achieved through wastes minimization from
on going MSW disposal in the landfills, Revised 1996 International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC, 1996) method was used. Similarly, for
the estimation of CH4 emission reductions that can be achieved through waste-to-energy from the old
landfills, the model applied in Nova Gerar Landfill Gas Project in Brazil (EcoSecurities, 2004) was
used. Finally, the strategies or options were compared and analyzed considering technical, economic
and environmental aspects.

3.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) Emissions from Wastes in Bangkok City

The major GHG emission from wastes sector in Bangkok city is the methane (CH4), which comes
from both solid waste and wastewater treatment and human sewage. Among which, the largest
emission source is the MSW disposal, which contributes nearly 60% of the total CH4 emission in the
national level. According to Thailand’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1994, the total CH4

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emissions from wastes sectors were 35.22 Gg, of which MSW disposal contributed 19.567 Gg of CH4
emission; and 12.841 Gg (about 66 percent) were from Bangkok and 6.726 Gg (about 34 percent)
were from other municipalities (Table 1). Similarly, the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1998
based on Revised 1996 IPCC National Greenhouse Gases Inventory, had estimated the national total
emission of CH4 as 14,152 GgCO2-e or 14,152,000tCO2-e (673.90 Gg CH4) (MONRE, 2004). The
estimation of CH4 emission done for this study at present following the same Revised 1996 IPCC
National Greenhouse Gases Inventory, was found to be 104.45 Gg per year which is equivalent to
2,193, 450 tCO2-e. The estimation was done considering a total of 6,627 tons per day (or
2,422.5Gg/year) of wastes were disposed through landfilling. This estimation considered only the
emissions from the currently operated sanitary landfills but not from the transfer stations and old
landfills. Table 2compares the present status of CH4 from the landfill disposal of MSW

Table 1. Estimates of CH4 Emission From Wastes in 1994

Source Methane Emissions (Gg) Share (percent)
Solid Wastes Disposal 19.567 55.6
Solid wastes disposal in Bangkok 12.841 36.5
Wastewater Treatment 15.65 44.4
Total 35.22 100.0
Source: OEPP (2000)

Table 2. Comparison of CH4 Emission from Present MSW Disposal Practice with National Data
CH4 emissions estimates (tCO2-e)
Amount of MSW at
Area Year
present (tons/day) *
1994 1998# 2007!
Country (whole) 40,000 410,907 14,152,000 N/A
Bangkok 6,637@ 269.661 N/A 2,193, 450
Sources: * - OEPP (2000); # - MONRE (2004); ! – calculated value @- total disposable quantity at
present

3.2 Potential Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Project for GHGs Emission Mitigation
from Waste Sector
Any project whose activities result in reducing the emissions of any one of the GHGs is referred to as
CDM project (UNEP, 2005).

ONEP (2000) identified at least three options in waste sector to mitigate potential GHGs emissions
from domestic and industrial wastes. Those are: recycling, reduction of wastes produced, and
conversion of waste into energy.

The most significant option that can be developed as a potential CDM project for the mitigation of
CH4 emission from wastes sector in Thailand including Bangkok city is the capture of CH4 from the
solid waste disposal on land as identified by the studies conducted by IGES (2006). However, other
option such as waste minimization through the implementation of 3R is currently in practice in the
city. Of the three components (reduce, reuse and recycle), recycle was found to be very successful and
effective in Bangkok city. Also pre-treatment of wastes by applying Mechanical Biological Waste

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Treatment (MBWT) is another approach, which can reduce the significant volume of wastes. The
study of pilot project in Phitsanulok municipality of Thailand, where GTZ has implemented a simple
Windrow based pre-treatment technology developed by FABER-AMBRA, Germany had shown that
60% of the wastes volume was reduced after MBWT treatment. The study also revealed that there will
be very minimal emission or no emission of CH4 gas in this technology. Though waste-to-energy is
the only potential CDM project identified to be applied in the MSW management sector in the
country, waste minimization through 3R and pre-treatment by MBWT were also considered and
evaluated for this study.

Capture of CH4 from both the old landfill sites (i.e.Ratchathewa landfill at Samutprakarn province and
Kampang Saen landfill at Nakhom Pathom province) to some extent has just been started. But the
landfills were not designed in a way to capture CH4 initially. Therefore, the installation cost for CH4
capture seems to be quite higher. At Ratchathewa landfill project the captured CH4 is utilizing to
generate electricity which is selling directly to the Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand
(EGAT), while at the Kampang Saen landfill project, the captured CH4 is flaring. But none of these
are designated as authorized CDM project to date and no calculation for CH4 emission reduction as
well as no economic evaluation for electricity have been done so far. The amount of CH4 captured and
utilized for electricity generation or flared in the existing landfill projects as of the information
provided by the authority involved in interview is presented in Table 3 and Table 4 presents the
composition of landfill gas.
Table 3. Status of CH4 Capture at Present From the Landfill Gas Projects
Total area Area of the Quantity of Quantity of Total Annual CH4
Landfill gas of the landfill used gas electricity working emission
project landfill for gas captured generated hours per reduction
(m2) capture (m2) (m3/hr) (MW/hr) week* (tCO2-e)
Ratchathewa 256,000 128,000 600 1 165 43,676.17
Kampang 320,000 20,000 300 - 165 14,420.95
Saen
*CH4 capture and electricity generation both are operating 24 hours a day and the machine is
stopped for 3 hours a week for maintenance work.

Table 4. Composition of Landfill Gases

Gases Percentage (%)
CH4 50
CO2 32
O2 1
Others 17

3.3 Scenarios Analysis for CH4 Emissions Reductions

The results of the scenarios analysis showed that in the 0% CDM application scenario, there is no
emission reductions. In the 50% CDM application scenario, the results showed that if 50% of the
disposable wastes are subjected to minimize either through 3R or through MBWT treatment, there
could be an estimated annual emission reduction of 438,480 tCO2-e of CH4 from 3R and 65 7,930
tCO2-e of CH4 emission reduction from MBWT treatment. Similarly, for waste-to-energy strategy i.e.

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from the old landfill sites, if 50% of the total landfill area are allowed to capture the gas and converted
to electricity or flared, an annual estimated quantity of 94,783.5tCO2-e and 62,397.43 tCO2-e of CH4
could be achieved respectively from each landfill gas project based on the present scenario.

Similarly, the results of the 100% CDM application scenario for 3R and MBWT showed that an
estimated CH4 emissions reduction of 877,380 tCO2-e and 1,316,070tCO2-e from MBWT could be
achieved respectively from each. Likewise the estimated emission reductions that could be achieved
through waste-to-energy strategy are 189,450.03tCO2-e and 124,908.85tCO2-e respectively from
electricity generation and flaring. Table 5 presents the overall results of the different scenarios for
different strategies.

The price for a ton of CO2 (tCO2-e) reduced has been set to US$5 by the World Bank Prototype
Carbon Fund (PCF) (World Bank, 2004).

Table 5. Results of the Scenarios Analysis for CH4 Emissions/Reductions

Emissions Reduciton
Scenarios Strategies Options
Gg/yr CH4 tCO2-e of CH4
1) 0% CDM Wastes minimization 3R 0 0
application MBWT 0 0
Waste-to-energy Electricity generation 0 0
Flaring 0 0
2) 50% CDM Wastes minimization 3R 20.88 438,480.00
application MBWT 31.33 62,397.43
Waste-to-energy Electricity generation 4.51 94,783.50
Flaring 2.97 62,397.43
3) 100% CDM Wastes minimization 3R 41.78 877,380.00
application MBWT 62.67 1,316,070.00
Waste-to-energy Electricity generation 9.02 189,450.03
Flaring 5.95 124,908.85
3R=Reduce, Reuse and Recycle; MBWT = Mechanical Biological Waste Treatment

The strategies were compared and analyzed based on the information and data obtained from this
study. Technical, economical and environmental aspects were the criteria chosen for the comparison
and evaluation. The comparative analysis of all the strategies based on the information provided on
informal interview during the field survey is presented in Table 6.

4.0 CONCLUSION

Though waste-to-energy has been identified as the potential CDM project in the MSW management
sector in Bangkok city, waste minimization through 3R implementation and pre-treatment of wastes
by MBWT technology could also be some other options eligible for CDM project as they help reduce
the significant amount of GHGs. Additionally, one should understand that MSW not only produce
CH4 but also produce significant quantity of CO2 from the facilities used for associated activities such
as transportation vehicles, compost plant, incinerator as well as recycling activity, which has not been

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Table 6. Comparative Analysis of the Strategies

Strategies
Criteria

Wastes minimization Mechanical Biological Waste Waste-to-Energy

through 3R-implementation Treatment (MBWT) Technology
- low cost or no - medium cost technology - high cost and highly
sophisticated technology - most of the equipments and sophisticated technology
required parts are available at local - most of the equipments
- use of easily available market and parts are not
equipments & machines - use of locally available available in the local
- less land area resources, materials market, mostly imported
requirement - requires large land area (for 100 from US and Europe
Technical

- major activities involve tons of wastes, requires about 3
manual operation hectares of land area to operate),
- no highly skilled suitable for sub-urban area
technical expertise - not convenient for high amount
required of wastes generation
- technology transfer, requires
technical expertise
- every single process has to be
performed perfectly
- need sufficient supply of oxygen
- income generating - not very high investment cost
- job creation (need more - job creation
human resources i.e. - recovery of resources such as
opportunity of job for high calorific value products
more people) known as refuse derived fuel
- improve living standard (RDF)
and provide good health - achievement of both waste
Economic (Socio-economic)
- requires highly skilled
technical expertise for
both operation and
maintenance
- maintenance of some
parts need the technical
person from the company
that supply the machine
or engine
- high investment cost
- high operation and
maintenance cost
- less job creation to
people
- high revenue generation
from electricity sale

- least investment cost and reduction and waste recycling - significant neighborhood
fast payback period - high reduction of wastes volume opposition for the land
- direct cash generation to be landfilled disposal of wastes and
- reduction in wastes - reduction in wastes management associated problems
management cost to a cost (by nearly 50%) - not cost-effective for
greater extent - increase of life span of landfill small scale landfill sites
- provide vocational site to a greater extent (nearly - high energy generation
training and training three times compared to capacity, can reduce the
materials such as to conventional MSW flow of fuel import to a
school children management) greater extent
- good approach for aware- - less public opposition and
ness generation to people conflict
- less or no public - a community based approach
opposition and conflict and an effective tool for public
- requires more public communication and involvement
participation

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Strategies
Criteria

Wastes minimization Mechanical Biological Waste Waste-to-Energy

through 3R-implementation
- highly positive
contribution
- avoids materials to come
to the environment
- conserve resources
- conserve energy
- reduce odor and
emissions, no leachate
Environm-ental
Treatment (MBWT)
- highly positive impact to
environment
- no organic carbon left after this
treatment
- no leachate production
- no organic or CH4 gas
production or reduction of CH4
gas by 80%
Technology
- Reactive approach and
perfectly an end-of-pipe
treatment
- potential for leachate
production and
contamination to the
nearby agricultural land
and water bodies
- potential for odor and

production - no smell and flies

- reduce global warming
effect
- adds up aesthetic beauty
- less risky to human
health
- increase entire life span
of landfill sites
- less risk to human health
- leachate can be reused back for
the sprinkler for windrows, less
risk of contamination to the
nearby agricultural land
smell production that
create problems to the
nearby communities and
natural environment
- high risk to human and
environmental health
both
- high potential for energy
production from CH4
- reduces the CH4 emission
and replaces the fuels by
the clean energy i.e.
electricity

included either in the past studies or in this study. Therefore, in order to know the actual emission of
GHGs emissions and reductions, a thorough analysis has to be done. The scenarios analysis conducted
in this study showed that MBWT is the most effective technology for the waste minimization and
emissions reduction but this is not viable to the areas with large quantity of wastes generation and less
availability of land area and requires special attention for maintaining proper condition for operation.
Similarly, the waste-to-energy technology i.e. CH4 capture for electricity generation was found to be
highly sophisticated, high cost and highly technical, which also requires large scale operation to be
economically viable. In contrast to MBWT and waste-to-energy, 3R seems to be low cost and more
environmentally friendly because by minimizing the wastes volume, it minimizes the overall MSW
management cost, increases the life span of landfill, generate incentives and can improve the
livelihood of people. However, in order to make the 3R successful and effective, public participation,
and awareness is extremely essential and market analysis for the recyclable materials should be done
thoroughly. Conclusively, it can be said that either of the above activities or combination of all can be
developed as CDM project in order to get the credits for CO2 emission reduction.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author is extremely grateful for the supports provided by the Professors of Asian Institute of
Technology (AIT), the organizations and individuals from Thailand and the Royal Norwegian
Government for the full financial support.

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