New Map Helps Show Significant Methane Pollution from Municipal Landfills

(Washington, D.C. – September 30, 2024) Environmental Defense Fund unveiled a new map and analysis today showing show the scale of dangerous methane pollution from landfills across the U.S.  

“Most people don’t associate their household garbage with climate pollution. But when organic waste breaks down in a municipal landfill it emits methane, which contributes to climate change and harms human health,” said EDF attorney Edwin LaMair. “There are landfills in communities across the country emitting high levels of dangerous methane pollution – and satellite and advanced monitoring data suggests they are polluting even more than we knew.”

There are more than 1,100 municipal solid waste landfills in the U.S. Those landfills are the country’s third-largest source of methane – a powerful climate pollutant that has 80 times more warming power than carbon dioxide in the short term. 

While most U.S. landfills self-report their emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, recent data from satellite and aerial monitoring often shows pollution levels significantly higher than reported.

EDF’s analysis of recent EPA and satellite, and advanced monitoring data found:

• Landfills emitted about 3.7 million metric tons of methane in 2021, according to EPA data. But analysis of satellite measurements suggest that actual emissions could be more than 6 million metric tons.
• 47 of the 70 landfills surveyed by the TROPOMI satellite showed emissions exceeding the levels reported to EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program in 2019, and a separate recent analysis in the journal Science found significant point source emissions at 52 percent of surveyed sites. 
• About two million people in American live within one mile of a landfill. Children, people of color, and people living in poverty are more likely to live close to a landfill and be impacted by its pollution.
• Based on data available in EPA’s ECHO database, in late 2023, 90 landfills were operating with significant violations of our nation's bedrock environmental laws.

There is now an important opportunity for EPA to revise our national standards for landfills so that they better safeguard public health and the planet. In a petition sent to the EPA, EDF joined 13 other groups to identify commonsense updates to the standards, including ensuring that more landfills use gas collection and control systems, and use more comprehensive monitoring standards.

EDF also launched MethaneSAT in March of 2024. The satellite will measure methane emissions from space, including emissions that aren’t detectable by other satellites. 

You can see EDF’s new map and get more information here.