Waste

Landfills produce methane when food and plants are discarded and rot underground. Wastewater produces methane when it is stored without access to oxygen. By reducing organic waste and altering their operations governments and operators can significantly reduce waste methane emissions.

See below for key waste sector resources.

  • Global Waste Playbook

    This guide from RMI is designed to “serve as a starting point for countries to further customize mitigation solutions to reflect their unique local context.” It establishes four municipal solid waste management archetypes across the globe and offers strategies for each.

  • WasteMAP Data Portal

    WasteMAP hosts open waste data from around the world to identify sources, showcase mitigation options, and help policymakers at all levels.

  • CCAC Waste Sector Solutions Page

    This webpage discusses the far-reaching efforts of the UNEP-convened Climate and Clean Air Coalition. It profiles the global waste industry and discusses direct support offered to governments.

  • Waste Sector Methane Monitoring and Measurement Guide

    Authored by experts at the Clean Air Task Force, this webpage provides an accessible overview of the landfill methane monitoring and mitigation process.

  • WasteMAP Decision Support Tool

    This interactive tool lets users model the waste methane mitigation potential of different waste scenarios at thousands of landfills globally.

  • Leveraging New Monitoring Technologies

    This guide from RMI offers US-focused emissions strategies based on site-specific, technological, and operational conditions. It also contains case studies and discusses the community and economic benefits of reducing methane emissions.

  • Basic Information about Landfill Gas

    This US EPA webpage provides an overview of methods for collecting and using landfill gas.

  • Mitigating Waste Methane

    This report from the Global Climate and Health Alliance examines “the sources of methane emissions from waste and wastewater, the associated human health benefits of methane reduction solutions, and solutions to reduce methane at the international, national, and local levels.”

  • Downstream Management Of Organic Waste

    This report details organic waste management solutions to reduce landfilling rates. It includes case studies of practices from areas of the US with differing sizes, customers, local market conditions, etc.

  • Financing Landfill Gas Projects in Developing Countries

    This World Bank report outlines basic financing options for landfill gas capture projects in developing countries, with case studies to outline site-specific factors that determine technical and financial viability.

  • International Best Practices Guide for Landfill Gas Energy Projects

    This report describes the steps involved in implementing landfill gas capture projects, including identifying project options and different funding mechanisms and Instruments. The appendix includes case studies of successful landfill gas capture projects.

  • Bans & Beyond

    Bans & Beyond

    This toolkit analyzes the structure and implementation of organic waste bans and presents examples from states and cities with existing or proposed waste bans.

  • "Methane Matters" Guide

    This report from waste experts at GAIA highlights actions that governments can take today to easily and affordably reduce methane from the waste sector.