Scenario A (baseline): weekly collection by refuse truck, hauled to an industrial anaerobic digestion plant. In the French reference case that plant is 200 km away on average, substitute the real distance for your own market.
Carbon footprint
How we calculate the carbon saving
A transparent method for calculating the transport emissions avoided: scope 3 transport boundary, published emission factors, formulas, external verification to ISO 14064.
In short
Composting on site takes almost all the transport out of a food waste chain: instead of a weekly round trip to a distant plant, the material stays where it is produced and leaves only a few times a year, over a short distance. How much that saves depends on the distance avoided and on the vehicles used, the calculation is set out below, to be run with the emission factors of your own country.
The calculation, step by step
We compare two scenarios for the same site producing food waste:
Scenario B (Easy to Compost): the ABC composter delivered to your site, compost taken away a few times a year, hauled to the local final destination you have arranged, a farm, a green-waste platform or your own grounds.
52 refuse-truck trips a year
200 km round trip to the digestion plant (French reference)
26 t truck · 0.68 kg CO₂e/km (ADEME Base Carbone, France)
6 van trips a year
50 km round trip to the local final destination (French reference)
3.5 t van · 0.15 kg CO₂e/km (ADEME Base Carbone, France)
External verification
External audit The method has been audited by an independent firm specialising in carbon accounting, with ISO 14064-2 verification of the French version of the calculation.
Public sources All our sources are public: the ADEME Base Carbone (France), INRAE studies, academic publications. Fully reproducible, and you can rerun the same calculation with your own national factors.
Updated every year The method is reviewed each year with the updated emission factors: the ADEME Base Carbone for France, the national reference for every other market.
Download the full method
An 18-page PDF with all the detailed calculations, the emission factors, the sources and the technical appendices, in French. Usable in a CSR audit, in CSRD reporting or for verification by an outside firm.
Download the PDF (1.2 MB) Available on request at hello@easytocompost.com until the automatic download goes live.
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The same calculation can be run online, without writing to us: the avoided carbon calculator is one of our two free tools.
Fewer lorries, fewer kilometres. That is where the carbon footprint is decided.
Peazy
PeazyA free remote survey, a clear recommendation, a quote
Thirty minutes on a video call to go over the food waste separation duty that applies where you operate, size the solution and estimate your savings.