Emissions from landfills: A methodology comparative assessment

Climate change from greenhouse gas emissions has been at the forefront of c urrent research in the past decade. Anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse g ases, over the past 100 years led to a considerable increase in the concent ration of these gases in the atmosphere. Methane emissions, of which munici pal solid waste landfilling is one of its major anthropogenic sources, make a significant contribution to the greenhouse effect. This paper considers the influence of municipal solid waste management, particularly landfilling on climate change, presents a brief review of methane formation mechanisms in municipal solid waste landfills, describes estimation methods used in d etermining methane emissions, and compares results and associated uncertain ties that are typically obtained with each method. Applications for estimat ing country-wide (with the country of Lebanon as an example) methane gas om issions from solid waste are presented using the approach adopted by the In tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The relative significance of these emissions is assessed in comparison with methane emissions from developing and developed countries. Mitigation measures to reduce the potential impac ts of methane emissions taking into consideration country specific economic and technological conditions are also discussed.