# How do I calculate Scope 3 waste emissions for a chemical plant from hazardous waste manifests and TSDF invoices in India?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/hazardous-waste-emissions-from-manifest-india

Group the tonnes on your manifests and TSDF invoices by waste type and treatment route (secured landfill, incineration, co-processing, recycling), then multiply each group by a factor for that route. Incineration of solvent or organic waste usually dominates; calculate it from the waste's fossil carbon content. Report the total as Scope 3 Category 5.

## Which documents carry the numbers

- The manifest under the Hazardous and Other Wastes Rules, 2016 (Form 10) travels with each consignment and records the waste category, quantity and the receiving facility.
- The TSDF or recycler invoice gives the billed tonnes and usually names the service: landfill, incineration or co-processing. This is the cleanest activity data.
- Your annual return to the state pollution control board totals the year by category, and is a good cross-check.
- A waste analysis or acceptance report from the TSDF gives calorific value or carbon content, needed for incineration.

## The calculation by route

- Incineration: CO2 = tonnes x carbon content (fraction of wet weight) x fossil share of that carbon x oxidation factor x 44/12. Use the TSDF's analysis for carbon content; IPCC 2006 Volume 5, Chapter 5 gives the method and default oxidation.
- Secured landfill: tonnes x a landfill factor for the waste type. Mostly inorganic hazardous waste produces little methane; organic sludge produces more.
- Co-processing in cement kilns and recycling: the guidance generally assigns combustion or recycling emissions to the user of the recovered energy or material. Report transport, or a sourced route factor, and state the approach you took.
- Waste transport to the TSDF may be included in Category 5; say whether you did.

## Where factors come from

There is no official Indian factor set for hazardous waste treatment. Options, in order of preference: data from your TSDF, calculation from the waste's own composition, or a published route factor such as the UK DESNZ waste disposal tables, labelled as a non-Indian proxy. Write the source and year with every factor.

## Mistakes to avoid

- Using the rupee amount on the invoice as activity data. TSDF rates vary with waste type and distance, not emissions.
- Counting a consignment twice, once from the manifest and again from the invoice. Pick one as the record and reconcile tonnes.
- Treating ETP sludge and spent solvent with one factor. Their carbon content differs widely.
- Leaving out wastewater sent off site, which also belongs in Category 5.

## Worked example: spent solvent sent for incineration

- TSDF invoice: 20 t of spent solvent waste, route: incineration
- TSDF analysis: carbon content 60% of wet weight (assumed for this example), all fossil
- Oxidation factor: 1.0 (assumed)
- 20 x 0.60 x 1.0 x 1.0 x 44/12 = 44 t CO2

The carbon content is an assumption for illustration. Use your TSDF's waste analysis, and remember that waste with biogenic carbon has a lower fossil share.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible keeps TSDF and waste service invoice lines in a separate Scope 3 evidence trail with the source page and the file's SHA-256 fingerprint. A line gets a figure only when its printed quantity, unit and treatment route match an approved factor; otherwise it shows Needs Data, with no spend-based fill. It does not read manifests or calculate incineration from waste composition.

- [Circular economy and waste](https://senseible.earth/circular-economy)
- [Food waste: landfill, compost or biogas](https://senseible.earth/answers/food-waste-landfill-vs-compost-vs-biogas-emissions)
- [Scope 3 supplier evidence](https://senseible.earth/scope-3-supplier-evidence)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (2013), Category 5](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 5 Waste, Chapter 5 Incineration and Open Burning](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/), [Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016 (moef.gov.in)](https://moef.gov.in)

Last reviewed 2026-10-15. Confirm the manifest form number against the current text of the 2016 Rules and its amendments before relying on it.