Simplify Your Waste CO2e Reporting with WasteEcoSavings
What does CO2e certification by WasteEcoSavings mean, and who should care?
Sustainability has significantly risen in importance in recent years. In addition to customers' ecological expectations, the obligation for sustainability reporting has set new standards for many businesses. This applies to both large manufacturers and the entire supply chain.
As a result, achieving sustainability goals has become a very important economic factor for many businesses. Companies that align their strategies ecologically and economically win more contracts and contribute more effectively to a viable circular economy. A key aspect in designing one's circular economy is the ideal setup of your waste and material management system.
Leverage benefits from CO2e reports with WasteEcoSavings
From paper and plastics to construction rubble and metals – all businesses generate waste. With WasteEcoSavings, you can quickly see how much CO2e PreZero helps you save by recycling or composting your recyclable materials. Additionally, we show you the amount of emissions you've produced, enabling your entire company and individual sites to do the following:
- reduce the environmental impact of your waste, for instance, through better separation of recyclables
- save on waste disposal by enhancing your waste management practices
- show your commitment to sustainability management to your customers and stakeholders
From mere waste disposal to your individual sustainability goals within the circular economy, PreZero offers full-spectrum support as your one-stop partner in sustainability. We ensure your recyclables are properly disposed of, sorted, and prepared for recycling, promoting a functional circular economy. We then promptly provide all related data.
With the WasteEcoSavings CO2 report, as a PreZero commercial and industrial client, you receive an easy-to-manage overview of the CO2e emissions and savings made possible for your business by our recycling and waste recovery methods. We create CO2e reports on emissions and savings for recyclables across various categories and give you digital access to the relevant information either via our customer portal, where creating your own reports is simple and intuitive or per request to our customer service centers for regions in which the customer portal is not yet available.
Currently, we can account for recyclable materials from the following categories:
| Category | Product Hierarchy |
|---|---|
| PPC (Paper, Packaging, and Cardboard) | PPC |
| Plastics | Plastics |
| Glass | Glass |
| Organic | Organic Waste |
| Wood | Wood Waste |
| Construction Waste | Construction Waste |
| Residual Waste | Residual Waste (W.f.R./W.f.D.) * |
| Non-ferrous Metals | Metals |
| Ferrous Metals | Scrap |
*Waste for Recovery and Waste for Disposal
Learn more about Life Cycle Assessments and WasteEcoSavings
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the systemic analysis of the environmental impacts of products, processes, or services throughout their entire life cycle – including manufacturing, use, and end-of-life phases.
Life Cycle Assessments are generally conducted according to the DIN EN ISO 14040/14044 standards for Life Cycle Assessment (also known as Life Cycle Analysis). Although these standards exist, LCAs cannot be compared one-to-one since the ISO standard allows for a certain degree of flexibility. Variations can stem from the use of different methodologies as a foundation for assessment, such as differences in data quality or the defined scope, making it difficult to directly compare the outcomes.
According to DIN EN ISO 14040, a Life Cycle Assessment is divided into four steps, which are considered continuously rather than chronologically:
- Objective and scope to define the focus of the analysis, its methods, and its intended audience
- Inventory analysis for the collection of primary data (such as specific raw data and presumptions) as well as secondary data (from existing LCA databases
- Impact assessment characterized by a specific impact category (e.g., "Climate Change," "Ecotoxicity")
- Interpretation involving review, reflection, and drawing conclusions
Leverage CO2e certifications to maximize benefits
By precisely identifying emission sources and their volumes, WasteEcoSavings helps you successfully manage your circular economy and reduce emissions that negatively impact the climate.
Customize your sustainability management system
Optimize your waste management by substituting hard-to-recycle raw materials with those that are recyclable and by enhancing recyclables’ separation.
Align your strategies ecologically and economically
An optimized sustainability management system results in more efficient raw material use, reduces waste disposal costs, and can even create new revenue streams by selling well-separated recyclables. After all, waste is just valuable material misplaced.
1. Collection
We collect different types of waste on-site at the client's location. For each stream of waste, we record the quantities and the number of container pickups, which serve as the foundation for your waste report.
2. Transportation
Thanks to our efficient routing, we ensure that the collection of client-specific containers can be carried out with the lowest possible fuel consumption, minimizing CO2 emissions.
3. Initial processing
At this stage, we sort out any contaminants and begin processing the material streams at our facilities.
4. Subsequent transportation
Our optimized fleet management enables us to select the best-suited vehicles for transporting the compacted and pre-sorted waste material from various categories to the processing and recycling facilities, always aiming for maximum efficiency and minimum emissions.
5. Processing and recovery
The processed streams of waste materials are transformed into recycled raw materials that can again become products and packaging, including those made of glass, plastic, paper, aluminum, and more. Materials unsuitable for this kind of recycling are used for energy production wherever possible.
6. Products
In addition to transforming raw materials into new products and packaging as recyclates, we produce valuable products like compost and wood chips. We also contribute to the production of alternative energy sources, such as heat, biogas, or biomethane, thereby helping to replace fossil fuels and reduce CO2 emissions.
Additional details on the methodology of data
At PreZero Germany, we use the "Cut-off" system model as the fundamental framework, focusing exclusively on the "End of Life" stage. This approach is taken because our operations impact the recyclables starting only from this point onward. As a result, emissions generated during the production or usage of the products are excluded from the calculation.
To describe more accurately what is included in the system and what is not, specific boundaries are set within the “End-of-Life” phase of the life cycle. The boundaries of this life cycle assessment methodology focus on emissions associated with each type of waste material, from collection to various recovery methods, including transportation.
There are several calculation methods to measure environmental impacts. For instance, the European Union recommends the "Environmental Footprint 3.1" method, which includes a total of 16 impact categories and represents a significant potential for environmental regulations. However, PreZero Germany does not consider all 16 impact categories when measuring the environmental impacts associated with each type of waste material. Attention is primarily given to the "Climate Change" category, focusing on the Global Warming Potential (GWP), quantified as CO2 equivalents (CO2e).
For WasteEcoSavings, the CO2e formula holds special significance as it quantifies the emissions and savings associated with each type of material. The 'e' in CO2e, or 'eq', stands for 'equivalent', encompassing all climate-relevant gases outlined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP). This includes not only CO2 but also other greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide, often referred to as 'laughing gas'. Using conversion factors, all these gases are expressed in CO2 equivalents.
The immediate comparison of emissions from our specific materials with those from primary resources clearly highlights the savings: WasteEcoSavings evaluates not just the emissions produced by recycling processes but also the savings made by substituting primary materials with recycled alternatives. This assessment involves direct comparison of emissions from manufacturing equivalent products using both primary (new) and secondary (recycled) materials. This leads to savings if emissions by PreZero Germany are lower than those that would have resulted from using primary materials. Refer to the formula:
Credits - Emissions = Savings
The functional unit is the point of reference and comparison for the analysis, to which all environmental impacts are attributed. In Germany, the following unit is used for calculating CO2e emissions and savings: 1 ton of collected recyclables
This means that the CO2e value results are always based on one ton of a particular waste material category. In evaluating the climate change impact within the life cycle assessment, a potential outcome for glass, as an example, might be: 1 For every 1 ton of collected glass, 0.6 t of CO2e emissions are produced.
Primary data from the countries and data sets from existing life cycle assessment databases (LCA) databases serve as the foundation for calculations. These are based on scientifically recognized average values.
