Achieving Sustainable Wastewater and Organic Solid Waste Management Taking Advantage of the Clean Development Mechanism

Combined management of municipal or industrial wastewater and organic solid waste offers various benefits for greenhouse gas reduction and sustainable environmental management. These can be achieved by a joint treatment step, thus reducing uncontrolled methane emissions and providing sanitary handling of waste streams. The clean development mechanism (CDM) offers the opportunity to co-finance the implementation and operation of the necessary infrastructure for integrated management of appropriate wastewater and organic solid waste. Due to the additional costs in the application procedure of a CDM project, a certain amount of greenhouse gas emission reduction is required in order to achieve a viable project. The minimum magnitude for a viable CDM project is calculated for various scenarios. The results show that CDM projects are generally not applicable for small municipalities and industries. However, the required project magnitude can be achieved by bundling different project activities into one CDM project, as is the case for the combined treatment of wastewater and organic solid waste.