Category 5 Waste Generated in Operations
Category description – Category 5 Waste Generated in Operations includes emissions from third-party disposal and treatment of waste generated in the reporting company’s owned or controlled operations in the reporting year. This category includes emissions from disposal of both solid waste and wastewater.
Only waste treatment in facilities owned or operated by third parties is included in scope 3. Waste treatment at facilities owned or controlled by the reporting company is accounted for in scope 1 and scope 2. Treatment of waste generated in operations is categorized as an upstream scope 3 category because waste management services are purchased by the reporting company.
This category includes all future emissions that result from waste generated in the reporting year. (See chapter 5.4 of the Scope 3 Standard for more information on the time boundary of scope 3 categories.)
Waste treatment activities may include:
- Disposal in a landfill
- Disposal in a landfill with landfill-gas-to-energy (LFGTE) – that is, combustion of landfill gas to generate electricity
- Recovery for recycling
- Incineration
- Composting
- Waste-to-energy (WTE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) – that is, combustion of municipal solid waste (MSW) to generate electricity
- Wastewater treatment.
A reporting company’s scope 3 emissions from waste generated in operations derive from the scope 1 and scope 2 emissions of solid waste and wastewater management companies. Companies may optionally include emissions from transportation of waste in vehicles operated by a third party.