Landfills are ubiquitous across the world, and their sheer size, scale and implications for global warming are immense. While landfills have their positives in terms of providing disposal of waste and difficult to recycle materials, their environmental aspects belie a far more complex issue. Understanding the complexities of landfills and their impact on global warming provides a clearer view of the bigger picture, and how society might benefit from rethinking our waste disposal strategies.
When waste is sent to landfills, a significant percentage of it is organic material such as food, paper and other biodegradable waste. This creates large-scale issues of methane production and release. Methane is a potent hazardous pollutant and greenhouse gas, and it is approximately twenty-four times more effective at trapping heat compared to carbon dioxide. A report from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that approximately 32 percent of the US’s total methane emissions come from landfills. This is significant considering that these emissions contribute significantly to climate change by trapping heat and raising global temperatures.
Landfills are also detrimental to the environment due to their physical size and disruption of natural habitat. As their footprint grows, large swaths of land need to be used for them which alters the natural environment and disrupts the ecological balance. Furthermore, the physical size of landfills often creates environmental issues such as the spread of pollutants to groundwater and air, and their presence also creates a negative aesthetic impact on the surrounding area.
The most effective way to mitigate the negative impacts of landfills is to pursue the three ‘R’ strategy of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. This strategy aims to prevent large amounts of waste from entering landfills in the first place. Reduce means buying fewer items and doing away with excess packaging and disposables, Reuse means reusing materials where possible, and Recycle means taking advantage of recycling opportunities in your place of residence.
On top of this, as society, we can further help promote a more circular economy where recycling becomes second nature and waste is treated as a valuable resource. When promoted in tandem with the three ‘R’ principle, this can create an effective feedback loop which helps to reduce the reliance on landfills and the environmental destruction that is associated with them.
While landfills do offer a necessary outlet for difficult to recycle materials, this should be coupled with sustainability efforts such as composting, food donation, and other measures that can help divert almost all waste away from landfills. When we become more mindful of the implications of landfills and how they affect global warming, we can develop effective strategies that can significantly reduce our reliance on this disposal method and, in the process, create a better global environment while reducing emissions and the effects of global warming.
How Do Landfills Affect Global Warming
