How do I calculate the CO2 from incinerating waste?

Use IPCC Equation 5.1: waste burnt x dry matter share x carbon share x fossil carbon share x oxidation factor x 44/12. Only fossil carbon, mainly from plastics and synthetics, counts in the CO2 total; carbon in food, paper and wood is biogenic.

The inputs

• Tonnes of each waste type burnt, from the operator's records.
• Dry matter, carbon and fossil carbon fractions: measured, or IPCC defaults.
• Oxidation factor: 1.0 for incineration by IPCC default.

Who reports it

If you run the incinerator, its CO2 is Scope 1. Waste sent to an outside incinerator or waste-to-energy plant is Scope 3, Category 5 for the generator.

Biogenic carbon

Food, paper and wood carbon is biogenic, so its CO2 is reported outside the scopes. Methane and N2O from incineration are small and calculated separately.

Worked example: plastic waste incinerated (illustrative inputs)

• Plastic waste incinerated: 10,000 kg
• IPCC defaults for plastics: dry matter 100 percent, carbon 75 percent of dry matter, fossil carbon 100 percent, oxidation 1.0
• Fossil CO2: 10,000 x 1.0 x 0.75 x 1.0 x 1.0 x 44/12 = 27,500 kg, about 27.5 t

Fractions are IPCC 2006 defaults for plastics (Volume 5, Table 2.4); use measured values where available.

What Senseible does here

Senseible keeps waste manifests, transport invoices and treatment bills as evidence on the Scope 3 trail and reads electricity bills for on-site equipment into Scope 2. Avoided emissions are never subtracted from the inventory.

• Waste sent to waste-to-energy
• Plastic waste co-processing in kilns
• Hazardous waste emissions from manifests

Sources: 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 5 Waste, Chapters 2 and 5, GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard

Last reviewed 2026-10-21.