Documentation for the Waste Reduction Model (WARM)
Documentation for the Waste Reduction Model (WARM) includes detailed chapters on the development of the greenhouse gas (GHG) and energy factors used in WARM as well as several background supporting documents.
On this page:
Documentation for GHG Emission and Energy Factors Used in WARM
The WARM documentation explains the calculation of emission factors by material type, or group of materials, arranged into individual chapters. EPA also provides chapters addressing each specific materials management practice available in WARM, along with a background and overview chapter, a list of definitions and acronyms, a summary of recent updates in WARM and additional chapters on special topics like forest carbon sequestration and energy factors.
The WARM documentation chapters are grouped into several files based on the following chapter topics:
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Background: includes chapters covering WARM Background and Overview, Definitions and Acronyms, Recent Updates in WARM, and Forest Carbon Storage
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Management Practices: includes chapters covering Source Reduction, Recycling, Anaerobic Digestion, Composting, Combustion, Landfilling, and Energy Impacts
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Containers, Packaging and Non-Durable Goods Materials: includes chapters covering Glass, Metals, Paper Products, Plastics, and Polylactide (PLA) Biopolymer
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Organic Materials: includes chapters covering Food Waste and Yard Trimmings
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Durable Goods Materials: includes chapters covering Personal Computers and Tires
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Construction and Demolition Materials: includes chapters covering Asphalt Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Carpet, Clay Bricks, Concrete, Drywall, Fiberglass Insulation, Fly Ash, Vinyl Flooring, Wood Flooring, and Wood Products.
Background Documents for WARM
In addition to the WARM documentation chapters, EPA has compiled several background documents that provide additional information on using WARM and the energy and emission factors applied in WARM. These background documents are grouped by topic, including additional user guidance, landfilling and landfill carbon storage and other topics.
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Additional User Guidance: provide information on how to use materials or management pathways not found in WARM, including guidance on using WARM emission factors for materials and pathways not in WARM, modeling food donation benefits, modeling increased product lifetime, modeling reuse, and the differences between WARM’s life-cycle greenhouse gas accounting approach and greenhouse gas emission inventories.
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Landfilling and Landfill Carbon Storage: provide more detailed information on how landfilling and landfill carbon storage are modeled in WARM.
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Other Topics: includes documents addressing a range of topics, including frequent questions on WARM’s aluminum emission factors, an overview of composting in WARM, an overview of forest carbon storage in WARM, and a summary of WARM’s approach for modeling regional electricity grids.