US Recycling and Composting Emissions Protocol

ICLEI-USA has produced the RC Protocol in recognition of the contribution recycling and composting can make to greenhouse gas reduction efforts.

The RC Protocol represents the new national standard for measuring emissions benefits of recycling and composting at the community level. The RC Protocol complements ICLEI's Community Protocol by providing additional guidance on accounting for the emissions benefits of recycling and composting activities in a community.
The RC Protocol is intended to help local governments account for the overall net emissions benefits of recycling and composting activities in their communities, as well as to estimate additional emissions reductions that occur outside the boundary of a community inventory.

Inventory protocols that focus on gross emissions generation do not have within them opportunities for firms and local governments to quantify and promote alternative management practices that result in lower emissions. This protocol supports this type of quantification, but notes that it is not intended to support the calculation of net emissions from an inventory.