There are also strategies to prevent material from coming into the landfills in the first place, like food waste reduction and organics management, where we might see an anaerobic digester co-located at a landfill, for example.ĭANIEL CUSWORTH: flew over hundreds of thousands of pieces of infrastructure across multiple sectors, including oil and gas landfills, wastewater, livestock, power plants, etc. What we really wanted to achieve with this report was to document in detail the best management practices at landfills and the number of measures that are being implemented to reduce methane.
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What takeaways can they get from this report on how to address that?ĮBUN AYANDELE: Landfills have been in the background of the research sphere and weren’t getting enough attention. WASTE DIVE: Most landfill operators understand that their facilities play a role in overall global methane emissions. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. A California study from 2020 used NASA data to find that major waste companies are among the state’s “super-emitters.” A national study is in the works.Įbun Ayandele, senior associate with the Climate Intelligence Program for RMI, and Daniel Cusworth, project scientist at Carbon Mapper, recently spoke about their report, which identifies the waste sector as both a disproportionate contributor to methane emissions but also “a critical partner in mitigating climate change.” The report follows other notable research in recent years about the role of landfills in climate change. The researchers consulted with major landfill operators such as Republic Services and WM, as well as government agencies, organizations like the National Waste & Recycling Association and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. RMI, a nonprofit that identifies energy system improvements for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and Carbon Mapper, a nonprofit organization that uses satellites to identify major methane emissions sources, led the report. It details available methods for measuring methane at landfills and highlights the importance of state and local programs to divert material away from landfills in the first place.
A report earlier this year called for better air monitoring data, coupled with design and operational upgrades, to help curb the issue.
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