What are waste emissions?
Waste emissions refer to greenhouse gases released during the handling, treatment, and disposal of waste. These emissions are classified under Scope 3.5 (Waste generated in operations) of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol.
If your business has disposed of materials such as organic waste, refuse, metals, or plastics, you’ll have waste emissions to report. Tracking these emissions helps monitor and reduce waste generation over time.
What you’ll need to get started
To calculate waste emissions, you’ll need:
Type of waste (e.g. metals, refuse, plastic)
Quantity of waste disposed of, in kilograms (kg) or tonnes
Providing both the waste type and quantity gives you the highest quality footprint calculation.
Choosing the right option
The options available will depend on whether you have connected your accounting platform or not and the data you have available.
If you have connected your financial accounting platform
If you have connected your financial accounting platform
There are a number of possible scenarios when completing this module. Follow the steps that best describe your situation:
1. Your business does not have waste emissions during this period
Select “I don’t have these emissions” from the module’s front page. This confirms that your business didn’t generate any waste during the selected quarter.
The module will be marked as complete and a 0kg CO₂e footprint will be applied for this quarter.
2. If you know how much waste you disposed of
Select “Waste type and weight” and enter the waste type and weight (in kg or tonnes) for the selected quarter. This gives you the highest quality footprint calculation.
To add more waste types, select “Add another waste type”.
3. If you do not know how much waste you disposed of
If you have completed the categorisation of your transactions from your financial accounting platform, select “I confirm waste expenses are accurate and I cannot provide further details”.
This allows Sage Earth Carbon Accounting to estimate emissions based on spend. As usage data isn’t being entered this doesn’t provide the highest quality calculation of your footprint.
4. If you know you disposed of waste but have no spend or weight data
If you know your business disposed of waste but have no cost of disposal from your accounting platform or waste type / weight data, select “I cannot provide further details”.
The module will be marked as complete, but your footprint will be created with a gap. You can amend this later if you are able to find a record of this data.
If you have not connected a financial accounting platform or if the date range for this module is prior to your integration start date
If you have not connected a financial accounting platform or if the date range for this module is prior to your integration start date
There are a number of possible scenarios when completing this module. Follow the steps that best describe your situation:
1. Your business did not dispose of waste during this period
Select “I don’t have these emissions” from the module’s front page. This confirms that your business didn’t generate any waste during the selected quarter.
The module will be marked as complete and a 0kg CO₂e footprint will be applied for this quarter.
2. If you know how much waste you disposed of
For any categories in which you know how much you used, select “Waste type and weight”. Select the waste type. Add the weight and the unit in tonnes or kilograms. This gives you the most accurate footprint calculation.
Make sure you add usage data to account for your business's entire spend and usage within this category for this quarter. You can add this as one item or choose “Add another waste type" and add multiple items of the same or different categories.
Repeat this process for all categories that you have detail of how much you've bought or used by choosing “Add another waste type" and providing the data for each activity.
3. If you do not know how waste you disposed of, but you do know how much you spent on waste
For any categories in which you don't know how much you used but you do know how much you spent, select “Waste type and cost of disposal”. Select the category of waste. Add the amount paid including VAT or any other taxes. Make sure you do not add cost details for any activities for which you've already provided the usage data (the amount used or bought).
If you enter both usage data in the Waste type and weight section and cost details in this section for the same category, the system will treat them as separate activities and include both in your footprint total.
To avoid double-counting, make sure the combined data you enter (across both usage and cost) accurately reflects your business’s total spend and usage for this category during the quarter.
You can enter this as a single item, or use “Add new entry" to include multiple entries under the same category. Repeat this process for all relevant activities by choosing “Add new entry" and providing the data for each activity.
4. If you know waste was disposed of but have no spend or usage records
Select “I cannot provide any details”.
The module will be marked as complete, but your footprint will be created with a gap. You can amend this later if you are able to find a record of this data.
Find out more:
See Section 7.3.1.1 of our Carbon Reduction Actions Guide