Municipal Solid Waste and Greenhouse Gases
The decomposition of organic waste in landfills produces a gas which is composed primarily of methane, a greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Landfill gas can be recovered and utilized to generate electricity, fuel industries and heat buildings. There are two major benefits to recovering and utilizing landfill gas. The first is that capturing and combusting landfill gas prevents substances like methane from escaping to the atmosphere; the second is that using the energy from landfill gas can replace the use of non-renewable sources of energy such as coal, oil, or natural gas.