The carbon impacts of recycling and
the effects of transport
Recycling saves carbon emissions through two processes:
• It avoids extraction and production of primary products;
• It avoids emissions from disposal, especially anaerobic biodegradation at landfill.
However, the recycling process has emissions associated with it too – there may be
extra transportation involved and the recycling process itself can be energy intensive for some materials.
Zero Waste Scotland developed the Scottish Carbon Metric to understand whether these savings outweigh
the additional emission costs.
The Carbon Metric
estimates the emissions
and savings from the life
cycles of materials that
become wastes.
It includes emissions from transport at all stages from production and manufacturing to recycling ,
incineration or landfill. It shows that, in general, the most emissions intensive part of the life cycle is the
extraction and primary production of materials. Transport is a small part of the overall emissions.
Impact of landfill
scenario
12.965
Impact of
recycling scenario
5.947
Savings from recycling
compared to landfill
7.018
This table shows the carbon
impacts for the different life cycle
stages of aluminium including
two end of life scenarios,
recycling or landfill. It shows that
the main source of carbon is the
production stage. Whilst recycling
transport emissions are higher
than landfill transport emissions,
the additional savings made from
using recycled material rather
than virgin material means that
recycling saves a lot more carbon
than landfill – about 7 tCo2eq in
this case of aluminium.
The carbon impacts of transport account for about 1% of the overall life cycle emissions of aluminium. This
is similar for other materials. For example, for plastic (which is assumed to be recycled abroad) recycling
transport emissions accounts for about 2% of overall life cycle emissions. For paper, transport for recycling
(including transport abroad for 50% of collected paper waste) account for 3% of overall emissions. For glass,
often recycled in Scotland, recycling transport impacts make up less than 1% of emissions.
So, whilst recycling may increase transport impacts in Scotland slightly, the overall benefit is so great that,
recycling saves carbon emissions compared to disposal options for all commonly wasted materials.
This case study is part the evidence base for the Scottish Carbon Metric developed by Zero Waste Scotland. For
more information please visit the ZWS website: www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/category/subject/carbon-metric
Additional examples comparing recycling and landfill impacts