Landfill

Rubbish tips are the source of landfill gas and in the UK 25 million tonnes of household waste were collected in 2000/01* - that's about 1,200kg of waste per household every year!

Around 50% of UK rubbish comes from packaging and a high proportion of it is aluminium cans and milk cartons. But most of our rubbish can be recycled and some local councils are now providing households with a recycling box for sorting glass, paper, cans and other waste packaging.

The waste matter that reaches landfill sites is left to decompose. But some of the rubbish that doesn't decompose naturally is burnt and this produces Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions which cause climate change. After as little as one year, the decomposed waste matter emits a natural methane-rich biogas that is used as a cheap and easily accessible energy source. To capture biogas for using as heat or power, landfill sites have to be prepared with an impervious lining prior to dumping of waste. Centrifugal compressors extract the gas through vertical wells, drilled into the waste and finally the gas is filtered before it is used to generate energy.

Using landfill as a source of power prevents the highly toxic methane gas from being emitted into the atmosphere. It is 20 times more dangerous to the environment than CO2. Not all the biogas produced on landfill sites is used and in 1994 landfill leakage made up 46% of total UK methane emissions in 1994. Under the Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation (NFFO) landfill gas production has flourished. There are currently around 174 landfill projects in the UK providing enough electricity for around 660,000 homes. Around 40 million tonnes of organic waste are dumped on landfill sites every year and this could generate around 6.75 TWh of electricity. That's enough to power 1.6 million homes. But the answer isn't in converting our rubbish into energy. We need to reduce the amount of waste we produce.

So next time you go shopping, try NOT to buy products that are wrapped in excess packaging. Minimize your rubbish and recycle as much as you can.

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