Climate Impacts of Landfill Gas Emissions

Landfilling has been the primary means of managing a wide variety of wastes and byproducts, ranging from municipal solid waste and industrial, agricultural, and mining waste to coal combustion ash, in the U.S. as well as globally. Gas, leachate, and heat are the main byproducts of landfilling. The main components of landfill gas from municipal solid waste landfills are methane and carbon dioxide, which are both primary greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide is the first, and methane is the second most significant positive radiative climate driver that adversely impacts earth's climate, with nearly monotonically increasing atmospheric concentrations recorded over the last several decades. Overall, anthropogenic, or human derived, GHGs consist of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases.