1. Methane
Methane’s impact on climate change is 84x higher than CO2 on a 20 year basis and 18% of global anthropogenic methane originate from landfills due to the decomposition of organic waste fraction.
With, 70% of the two billion tons of waste generated each year being still landfilled, it goes without doubt that the current climate impact of landfilling is enormous.
The emission factor of one ton waste landfilled is between 600 and 5000kg of CO2eq. Here lies a gigantic opportunity and urgency for the waste sector to reduce its climate impact by diverting waste from landfills to waste to energy (WtE) and recycling.
