Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

Materials, Waste and Global Warming

According to the US EPA, approximately 42 percent of greenhouse gas emissions originating in
the United States are associated with the management of materials. Production/manufacturing
contributes the most (33 percent), followed by transportation of goods (7 percent) and end-of-life
management (two percent). These estimates dont include the emissions associated with
producing products and materials that we import from other countries. So clearly, how much we
produce and consume, what materials and products we use, how and where theyre made, how
theyre transported, and how we manage our discards, all impact climate change.
The Environmental Quality Commission has adopted Materials Management in Oregon: 2050
Vision and Framework for Action. The 2050 Vision addresses reductions in environmental impacts
including but not limited to greenhouse gases across the full life cycle of materials, from
resource extraction and manufacturing through consumption and use to recycling and disposal.
Materials Management in Oregon: 2050 Vision and Framework for Action.
Waste prevention and recycling help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In a typical year, recycling
in Oregon reduces greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equivalent to the tailpipe emissions
from 500,000 700,000 cars. Most of these emissions reductions occur upstream when
manufacturers use recycled wastes instead of virgin materials to make new products. Recycling
also helps to reduce downstream greenhouse gas emissions from landfills, although this
benefit is smaller than the upstream reductions.
Even more effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions is waste prevention, the reduce,
reuse part of reduce, reuse, recycle. DEQs Waste Prevention Strategy includes several
projects that help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
DEQ's Waste prevention strategy Web page.
Consumption-based Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory for Oregon
Oregon residents and businesses contribute to emissions of greenhouse gases in many ways. For
many years, Oregon has conducted an inventory of emissions. Like other states, Oregon has
focused its inventory primarily on emissions that originate in-state. But that focus only tells part of
the story of how Oregon contributes to climate change. When it comes to materials, it focuses on
emissions from in-state manufacturing but leaves out many of the emissions associated with
materials that are imported for use in Oregon.
A new inventory study commissioned by DEQ supplements the traditional inventory approach. It
estimates the emissions both in-state and elsewhere - associated with consumption by Oregon
residents, businesses and governments. More than half of these consumption-based emissions
occur in other states or nations. Somewhere between 35 and 48 percent of Oregons
consumption-based greenhouse emissions are a result of consumption of materials.
DEQ's Consumption-based Emissions Inventory Web page.
Oregon Global Warming Commission: Roadmap to 2020
In 2010, the Oregon Global Warming Commission began a process to identify actions Oregon and
others could take to achieve the states greenhouse gas reduction goals for 2020. The product of
this effort is the Commissions Roadmap to 2020. DEQ helped to staff a Roadmap
committee which developed a series of recommendations involving materials and waste. These
recommendations were revised and adopted by the Commission and are included in its Roadmap

to 2020.
Oregon Global Warming Commission Web page.
Governor's Advisory Group on Global Warming
Like the Global Warming Commission, Governor Kulongoskis Advisory Group on Global
Warming (2004) was charged with recommending actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This Advisory Group was supported by seven technical subcommittees that identified and
evaluated alternatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. DEQs Solid Waste Program staffed
the Technical Subcommittee on Materials and Waste.
The Technical Subcommittee on Materials and Waste produced two documents. The first is a
briefing paper that explains the relationship between materials, waste, and greenhouse gases
and discusses some of the related accounting issues. The second provides a preliminary evaluation
of specific policy and program alternatives to reduce greenhouse gases through waste prevention,
recycling, composting, reduced garbage burning, and landfill gas controls.
Download introductory briefing paper here (No 9 Materials) PDF
Download preliminary evaluation of alternatives here (materials options 0601) PDF
The Oregon Strategy for Greenhouse Gas Reductions provides more information, including the
Advisory Groups recommendations.
Oregon Strategy for Greenhouse Gas Reductions
Want more information?
EPA Climate Change - Waste
Visit the US Environmental Protection Agencys web site on climate change.
West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum
A partnership of Western cities and states that are developing and sharing ways to integrate
lifecycle materials management policies and practices into climate actions.
Climate Change in Oregon
Meeting the challenge of climate change.
Answering the Oregon Challenge: Climate Change
DEQ's climate change main Web page.