It powers some 260,000 homes and businesses in Orange and Osceola counties, up to 15,000 of them with methane from this landfill. Standing atop a 140-foot summit of refuse at the Orange County landfill, almost all of metro Orlando is in view: downtown high-rises, the control tower and runways of Orlando International Airport, and the looming cylinder-shaped cooling towers of Stanton Energy Center. Three of the top 10 methane-emitting landfills are in central Florida You collect more methane, and you don't release it to the atmosphere." "And targeting landfills is a great place to start because by tuning the gas collection system, and getting it to work at its optimum level, you get a lot. "By reducing methane emissions, we can quickly reduce the atmospheric warming effect," said Jeff Chanton, a Florida State University climate scientist who studies methane. That could go a long way to keeping average global temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial times, and avoiding the worst effects of climate change, a goal of the Paris climate agreement.
Yet steep reductions in global methane emissions this decade would avoid nearly 0.3 degrees Celsius of additional warming by the 2040s, according to the U.N. The Biden administration has begun to implement a 2016 rule on landfill methane, but it will only cut a small percentage of emissions. The United States is the third-biggest emitter of methane in the world. Landfills are one of three main sources of human methane pollution, along with livestock and the oil and gas industry. Reducing methane could almost immediately curb climate change, because it stays in the atmosphere for a short time, unlike carbon dioxide, which lingers for a century or more. The stakes are high for getting an accurate picture of methane emissions. "We do have the capacity to measure these emissions directly. "We're basing our emissions estimates on models rather than direct measurement," said Maher, who recently authored a study that found Maryland's landfill methane emissions were four times higher than that state had estimated. Three of the nation's top 10 methane-emitting landfills are in central Florida, including the Orange County Landfill pictured here, according to numbers provided by the facilities to the Environmental Protection Agency. Landfills emit methane when organic wastes such as food scraps, wood and paper decompose.
report published in May found that immediate reductions in methane emissions are the best, swiftest chance the planet has at slowing climate change. "Because when people throw things away, this is where it comes."Īccording to the Environmental Protection Agency, landfills such as this one on the edge of Orlando are among the nation's largest sources of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide and a major contributor to global warming. "Anything you will see out in the real world you'll see it here," said David Gregory, manager of the solid waste division of the Orange County Utilities Department. Bulldozers smooth the dirt into place while tractor-trailers deliver ever more trash. Garbage is strewn among thigh-high drifts of dirt, used to bury the filthy, weather-worn items at the Orange County Landfill in Florida and prevent the intrusion of insects, rats and pigs. Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty ImagesĪ single flip-flop.
Pictured here is Waste Management landfill in Livermore, Calif. With scientists calling for cuts in methane emissions, there are challenges to curbing these emissions from landfills, starting with even quantifying them. Landfills produce a lot of methane, a heat-trapping gas that contributes to global warming.
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