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Solid Waste Emissions In ::W05, San Leandro sent approximately 160,050 tons of solid waste to landl~lls. The City also has recycling and composting measures in place, but due to lack of data availability the emissions impact of these practices is not included in this analysis. The way in which ICLEI's CACP software calculates solid waste emiSSIons deserves detailed explanation. The sollware is designed to be used in communities with a variety of waste disposal methods, including open dumping, landfIlling and incineration. The emissions calculations from waste disposal are based on the U.S. ErA's Waste Reduction Model (WARM) and are consistent with national standards. The CACP software calculates waste sector emissions based on a number of t~lctors, including: the methane recovery factor at the landfills to which the city's solid waste is sent; the total amount of solid waste sent to the landfill(s); the composition of the waste sent to the landlill(s); and emissions coeffIcients derived from the W ARM model. A weighted average of the methane recovery l~lCLors for the landfills to which San Leandro sends its waste equals approximately 74.6 percent. This estimate is based on data supplied by the U.S. EP A's Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP). Based on ernissions coefficients for the waste sector, and because more than 74.6% of the methane produced from San Leandro's solid waste is estimated to be recovered (either captured perpetually under the liner of the landfill or captured and then flared), waste emissions appear to be slightly negative - 35, 118 tons of eCOl in 2005. llowever, because the model does not capture the emissions credit achieved through the city's recycling efforts, we are choosing to "zero out" the emissions credit attributed to landfIlling for the purposes of this inventory. Zeroing out the emissions credit for landfilling is consistent with the action taken by a number oflCLEI members, including the City and County of San Francisco. Furthermore, the henefi/s gajned from ri!C)'chng and the assodated reduchon jn "ups/ream" energy use far outweigh sefl(fjng waste to the landfill. For example, if San Leandro recycled an additional 20,000 tons or waste, then the City would reduce its annual eC02 emissions by an additional amount of 53,000 tons. Recycling reduces CO) emISSions because manufacturing products with recovered materials avoids emissions from the energy that would have been used during extraction, transpOliing and processing of virgin raw materials. Recycl ing paper also conserves forests, which contribute to carbon sequestration a process that removes carbon from the atmosphere and stores it for long periods of time. 130th forests and organ ic material in the soil sequester carbon. Further, recent studies have begun to question the U.S. EP A's estimates for the amount of methane that is actually captured by methane recovery systems at landfills. Many hypothesize that the efficiency with which methane recovery systems capture methane is currently overestimated, and that much more of the potent greenhouse gas is actually escaping from landfills into the atmosphere. The C^CP sollware is designed to follow EPA guidelines and the tool will be updated appropriately when those guidelines change. Table (2) shows the approximate breakdown of the materials San Leandro sent to the landt~ll in 2005. Organic materials such as food and yard waste disposed of in landfills decompose and emit methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than CO). Materials that do not breakdown and release greenhouse gases are aggregated into the "All Other Waste" category. City of San Leandro Baseline Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory 10