Date: May 28, 2010
Source: Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA)
SWANA Concludes That Landfill Gas Capture and Utilization Report Presents Valid Representation Of U.S. Practices
On May 28 SWANA's International Board of Directors approved the following statement concerning the recent report The Importance of Landfill Gas Capture and Utilization in the U.S.
After review by the International Board of Directors and Technical Divisions, SWANA concludes that this report presents a valid representation of the state-of-the-art of landfill gas capture and recovery as practiced in the U.S.
SWANA also endorses certain conclusions of the report as being fully consistent with SWANA's mission and policies. Specifically we agree that organics diversion, composting, and/or other waste management options, which are sometimes viewed as alternatives to landfills, are more properly considered as complementary waste management tools. Furthermore, all such practices must be judged on their own merits, including cost-effectiveness, environmental impacts and operational efficiency. Finally we agree that progress in lowering greenhouse gas emissions is best achieved by a concerted, integrated approach that employs all available technologies and methods, including reuse, recycling, composting, waste-to-energy, and landfilling with capture of landfill gas.
This report was authored by Patrick Sullivan, Research Associate with Columbia University's Earth and Engineering Center (EEC) and Senior Vice President with SCS Engineers.
"The report provides an extensive review of the international peer reviewed literature on this subject and the conclusions on the efficiency of landfill gas capture and cover oxidation are well supported and convincing," said John H. Skinner, PH.D., SWANA Executive Director and CEO. "We believe that it will advance the technical and scientific understanding of the significant environmental benefits of landfill gas recovery and its important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Skinner added.
This report was brought to the Board's attention by SWANA's Landfill Gas Division, which is comprised of over 600 SWANA members and is widely recognized as a premier technical and scientific authority on landfill gas recovery, utilization and management. Consequently the report was sent out to for review and comment to all 67 members of the International Board of Directors as well as to the executive committees of SWANA's seven Technical Divisions.
On May 28, the SWANA Board approved the above statements by majority vote and a letter of support was sent to Professor Nickolas J. Themelis, Director, Earth Engineering Center, Columbia University. copy of the letter is available online at www.SWANA.org/themelisletter. SWANA congratulated the author for his comprehensive and diligent review of the literature in preparing this report and the Earth Engineering Center for their thoughtful input and review. For a copy of the report, The Importance of Landfill Gas Capture and Utilization in the U.S., go to www.SWANA.org/lfgCU.
About SWANA:
For over 40 years, the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has been the leading professional association in the solid waste management industry. SWANA's mission is "to advance the practice of environmentally and economically sound management of municipal solid waste." SWANA serves more than 8,000 members and thousands more industry professionals with technical conferences, certifications, publications and a large offering of technical training courses. For more information, visit www.SWANA.org.
For more information, contact:
Alisha McMichael
Marketing Program Manager
240-494-2235
marketing@swana.org.
THE REPORT:
The Importance of Landfill Gas Capture And Utilization In The U.S.
Patrick Sullivan, Research Associate with Columbia University's Earth and Engineering Center (EEC) and Senior Vice President with SCS Engineers.
April 6, 2010
(Report for the Council for Sustainable Use of Resources (SUR))
Executive Summary
According to the BioCycle/Columbia survey of municipal solid wastes (MSW), the U.S. generates nearly 400 million tons of MSW, 64% of which is landfilled. When MSW is buried in a landfill, a complex series of reactions occur in which anaerobic microorganisms decompose a portion of the organic fraction of the waste to carbon dioxide and methane. The methane produced can be collected and flared or converted to energy, which oxidizes the methane to carbon dioxide.
In its Fourth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that mitigation of methane from the world's landfills, by means of gas collection and utilization could reduce methane emissions from landfills globally by 70 percent at negative to low costs by 2030. In effect, IPCC recommended a waste management method that is widely employed in the United States.
Unfortunately, opponents to landfill disposal too often do not differentiate between those practices that are helpful and those that are detrimental from a Climate Change perspective. When landfills are reviewed on a life-cycle basis, the negative comments from landfill opponents do not accurately portray the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from landfills in the United States, and data are often misused to suggest that landfills are collecting far less of the landfill gas (LFG) than actually is occurring nationwide. Recently, these opponents have urged policymakers not to support measures aiming to increase LFG capture and recovery. The main argument is that increased LFG capture makes composting less attractive than landfilling.
The United States has a very stringent level of regulation with regard to LFG and has the highest percentage of landfills with LFG collection systems relative to any other country that practices landfilling. Because of regulatory as well as other programs that promote LFG recovery and utilization, such as the Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), nearly 60% of the worldwide capture of methane occurs in the United States even though the U.S. only generates 24% of the worldwide methane.
Despite the progress made in capturing LFG, methane emissions from landfills can be further reduced by regulations and incentives that will result in additional LFG capture and utilization by means of:
Improving the design and construction of the LFG collection system to improve efficiencies,
Increasing LFG collection system efficiencies by improved cap and cover systems.
Promotion of earlier installation of gas collection systems.
It is these types of improved control measures that should be the focus of efforts to further reduce methane emissions from landfills, including any incentives, financial or otherwise, that encourage more and earlier LFG collection as well as the beneficial use of the collected LFG to create additional GHG reductions by generating renewable energy.
Organics diversion, composting, and/or other waste management options, which are sometimes viewed as alternatives to landfills, are more properly considered as complementary waste management tools. All such practices must be judged on their own merits, including cost-effectiveness, environmental impacts and operational efficiency, and not on the back of unfounded negative statements about landfills or other management options. Progress in lowering GHG emissions is best achieved by a concerted, integrated approach that employs all available technologies and methods, including reuse, recycling, composting, waste-to-energy, and landfilling with capture of LFG.
To view the entire report, visit: www.scsengineers.com/Papers/Sullivan_Importance_of_LFG_Capture_and_Utilization_in_the_US.pdf.
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