Solid waste, a lever for decarbonization

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https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl0557

By MICHAEL E. WEBBER AND YAEL R. GLAZER, Science. 

Excerpt: On 20 December 2015, a mountain of urban refuse collapsed in Shenzhen, China, killing at least 69 people and destroying dozens of buildings (1). The disaster exposed the horrible yet real idea that society’s wastes could pile up uncontrollably, directly threatening our lives. But there is another looming threat from solid waste beyond its sheer volumes and mass: the destabilizing impacts of the greenhouse gases it emits. ...Hoy et al. (2) report that rapid and large reductions of methane emissions from the world’s solid waste sector are needed to meet the global warming limit set by the Paris Agreement. The good news is that this can be achieved with existing technologies and modified behaviors. ...Municipal solid waste—the garbage that ends up in landfills, recycling centers, compost sites, and ecosystems—is particularly relevant to global warming because solid waste is a major source of atmospheric methane [carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide are the primary greenhouse gases]. Methane’s molecular structure also traps more heat than does CO2 and is responsible for approximately one-third of global warming (3).... 

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