"And one of the things that we do here at the landfill is collect that gas and use it to make energy."ĭavid Gregory says his department has gone beyond regulations to contain methane emissions at the Orange County Landfill. "You have something that's reached the end of its life," he said of the trash. The wells also keep vast quantities of methane from escaping. Buried within the garbage lies an expansive criss-cross network of more than 500 wells capturing methane gas from the decomposing trash. Gregory finds value in what is going on under his feet, the rotting and decomposition of organic waste such as kitchen scraps, paper or spoiled canned goods, and the biological processes that turn garbage into methane. It powers some 260,000 homes and businesses in Orange and Osceola counties, up to 15,000 of them with methane from this landfill. Standing atop a 140-foot summit of refuse at the Orange County landfill, almost all of metro Orlando is in view: downtown high-rises, the control tower and runways of Orlando International Airport, and the looming cylinder-shaped cooling towers of Stanton Energy Center. Three of the top 10 methane-emitting landfills are in central Florida The United States is the third-biggest emitter of methane in the world. Landfills are one of three main sources of human methane pollution, along with livestock and the oil and gas industry. Reducing methane could almost immediately curb climate change, because it stays in the atmosphere for a short time, unlike carbon dioxide, which lingers for a century or more. The stakes are high for getting an accurate picture of methane emissions. "We do have the capacity to measure these emissions directly. "We're basing our emissions estimates on models rather than direct measurement," said Maher, who recently authored a study that found Maryland's landfill methane emissions were four times higher than that state had estimated. Three of the nation's top 10 methane-emitting landfills are in central Florida, including the Orange County Landfill pictured here, according to numbers provided by the facilities to the Environmental Protection Agency. Landfills emit methane when organic wastes such as food scraps, wood and paper decompose. report published in May found that immediate reductions in methane emissions are the best, swiftest chance the planet has at slowing climate change. "Because when people throw things away, this is where it comes."Īccording to the Environmental Protection Agency, landfills such as this one on the edge of Orlando are among the nation's largest sources of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide and a major contributor to global warming. "Anything you will see out in the real world you'll see it here," said David Gregory, manager of the solid waste division of the Orange County Utilities Department. Bulldozers smooth the dirt into place while tractor-trailers deliver ever more trash. Garbage is strewn among thigh-high drifts of dirt, used to bury the filthy, weather-worn items at the Orange County Landfill in Florida and prevent the intrusion of insects, rats and pigs. Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty ImagesĪ single flip-flop. Pictured here is Waste Management landfill in Livermore, Calif. With scientists calling for cuts in methane emissions, there are challenges to curbing these emissions from landfills, starting with even quantifying them. Landfills produce a lot of methane, a heat-trapping gas that contributes to global warming.
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