Waste Data module · not an inventory
Waste scenarios with EPA WARM v16
The Waste Data module compares what happens to the same waste under different pathways. Its figures include avoided emissions, so they answer "what if we changed how we handle this?", never "what did our waste emit?".
On this page you'll learn
- How a baseline and an alternative are compared
- How WARM's 13 pathway columns become Slate's six
- Why WARM is never added to Scope 3
- Publisher
- EPA WARM v16
- Materials
- 61 in 11 categories
- Output
- Metric tonnes CO₂e per scenario
- In scope totals
- Never
Baseline against alternative
An analysis holds waste records by material, each with tonnages across six pathways: recycled, landfilled, combusted, composted, anaerobically digested and (alternative only) source-reduced. Slate costs the baseline and the alternative and reports the difference.
- short tons
- your entry, converted: value × unit ÷ 907.18474 kg
- WARM factor
- kg CO₂e per short ton, can be negative
Pathways
Five of Slate's pathways match a WARM column one to one. Anaerobic digestion has four WARM columns; Slate uses the one WARM's own blank workbook selects, dry digestion with curing. Wet digestion is marked not applicable for yard trimmings, grass, leaves, branches and mixed organics, so a wet default would quietly return zero for them.
Never an inventory figure
- WARM: 100 × −9.127378
- −913 MTCO₂e
- Scope 3 inventory, Hub Table 9: 100 × +0.06
- +6 MTCO₂e
- Both correct
- for different questions
Why this matters
EPA says WARM results shouldn't be presented as part of Scope 1, 2 or 3. The GHG Protocol doesn't allow avoided emissions in a Scope 3 inventory. WARM therefore has no route into the factor chain, and the waste module never writes a calculated-emission row. Waste you send away is reported through the Scope 3 catalogue.
Read from EPA's workbook
| Material and pathway | Hand-typed | WARM v16 |
|---|---|---|
| Aluminium cans, combusted | −0.04 | +0.034432 |
| Corrugated, recycled | −0.43 | −3.135337 |
| Newspaper, landfilled | +0.08 | −0.846139 |