I only know total waste tonnes and roughly what share goes to landfill, recycling and composting. How does the Greenhouse Gas Protocol count Category 5 then?
Use the average-data method: total waste tonnes times the share treated by each route times an average factor for that route, added up. The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol says it is often preferable where the type of waste is unknown, but it carries higher uncertainty than the waste-type-specific method. Its example gives 3,320 kilograms.
When this method applies
The guide's decision tree for Category 5 asks in order: can the waste treatment company give waste-specific Scope 1 and 2 data (supplier-specific method), and can you tell your waste streams apart (waste-type-specific method). If neither, use the average-data method. The guide says it is often preferable where the type of waste produced is unknown, and that it has a higher degree of uncertainty than the waste-type-specific method.
What to collect
The guide notes that many waste operators charge by disposal method, so the shares may be readable off their bills or held in internal systems. In India that means contractor invoices and weighbridge slips (our reading).
- Total mass of waste generated in your operations.
- The proportion treated by each method, for example percent landfilled, incinerated or recycled.
- Average factors for each treatment method. The guide says these should include end-of-life processes only; sources it names are life cycle databases and national inventories.
Read the factor notes, not just the numbers
In the guide's example the same route gets different factors. Recycled waste appears twice: at 0 where emissions from material recovery were allocated to the recycled material, and at 10 where they were not. Incineration with energy recovery is 0 because preparation and transport were allocated to the energy produced. Before you pick a factor, check what its source includes, so a step is not dropped or counted twice. The guide's notes treat the energy-recovery factor differently in two examples (0 here, 2 in its waste-type example), so check what your factor includes.
The guide's telesales centre, 40 tonnes of waste
- Landfill: 40 x 0.25 x 300 = 3,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)
- Incinerated with energy recovery: 40 x 0.05 x 0 = 0
- Recycled, factor 0: 40 x 0.30 x 0 = 0
- Recycled, factor 10: 40 x 0.20 x 10 = 80
- Composted: 40 x 0.20 x 30 = 240
- Total: 3,000 + 0 + 0 + 80 + 240 = 3,320 kilograms CO2e. The shares add to 25 + 5 + 30 + 20 + 20 = 100 percent
- Landfill is 3,000 of 3,320, about 90 percent of the total
Tonnes, shares and factors are the guide's example values, which it says are not for real use. Factors here are in kilograms CO2e per tonne.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, which covers your own Scope 1 and 2. It does not read waste weights or disposal routes into those records, so the shares come from your contractor and your own slips.
- Factory waste emissions for Category 5
- Is waste transport counted in Category 5?
- Recycling across Categories 1, 5 and 12
- Free calculators
Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Arithmetic matches the guide's printed 3,320. Use factors for your own routes and say what each includes.