Landfills are all over the world and they have a major problem. That problem is methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is far worse than carbon dioxide and it can affect your health. That’s not all it does, though. It can be downright dangerous and is highly flammable, causing potential fire hazards in landfill zones.
What can you do to reduce the amount of methane being produced in landfills? It may not feel like one person can do a lot, but if everyone makes a change, it’s possible to really make a difference in how methane affects the world.
Here’s how methane can be reduced at landfills.
Reduce Food Waste
A large amount of the methane gas produced by landfills comes from food waste. With restaurants and individuals throwing away food at alarming rates, it can be quite disturbing to realise that it is also causing greenhouse emissions. The simplest way to reduce methane overall is to ensure that food waste is minimalised.
Many countries are now focused on providing food from restaurants to shelters or to the homeless. This eliminates a major cause of food waste and helps ensure people are fed. It may seem simple, but reducing the amount of food thrown into the landfill will result in better management of methane gas.
Recycle and Compost
The next time you’re trimming hedges, pulling weeds, and getting rid of green waste, consider composting it instead. The process of composting turns ugly green waste into rich soil that can be used in your garden. Not everyone has space for composting though, particularly if you have large amounts of waste to deal with. In this case, you may consider sending your green waste to a company that will compost it for you.
Burn It Off
Methane is actually a really great fuel that can be captured and used in a controlled way as fuel. Burning it can provide heat or energy and while this isn’t a widespread option yet, more and more areas are offering to recycle green waste in order to turn it into useful methane gas fuel.
While methane gas can be burned to create energy, it may also be compressed and cooled to create liquified natural gas which may be used to run vehicles. It may even be purified and added to regular natural gas for home use.
Still not sure how you can personally reduce methane in the local landfill? You have plenty of choices and as more and more people opt to recycle or compost their green waste, we’ll see a drop in how bad landfills are. Contact Cherry Hill Waste today to find out more about our skip hire and green waste management services.
