from Hacker News

Landfills Leak More Planet-Baking Methane Than We Thought

by frasermarlow on 4/7/24, 8:40 PM with 62 comments

  • by kyleperik on 4/7/24, 10:09 PM

    I have seen little consideration made to the carbon cycle which produced this result of methane output in landfills.

    It doesn't come from nothing. Methane is a compound generally produced by the breaking down of organic compounds in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic decomposition)

    Organic compounds generally gain carbon from the atmosphere. So where is the extra carbon entering the system?

    Should the focus not be on disposal methods but on ensuring sustainable regeneration of farmland in this case?

  • by happytiger on 4/7/24, 8:54 PM

    Don’t a lot of places capture methane from their landfills for energy? How can the quantities be unknown when you’re capturing and messing the output gases? This can’t be some magical surprise.

  • by PcChip on 4/8/24, 12:41 AM

    isn't there a new satellite coming online soon that will be taking pictures of methane emitters?

    I vaguely remember reading about a planned project that would be able to call companies and countries out on their actual methane production, not just what they report

  • by MisterBastahrd on 4/7/24, 11:25 PM

    We should really have three bins: organic waste, recyclable waste, everything else. We should be composting organic waste, not simply throwing it in a giant pile with everything else where it can sit be useless. Think of all that topsoil that has gone into creating the remains of the leftover food in these landfills, and instead of using it to create more fertile soil, it just sits there and rots with old televisions and refrigerators and pizza boxes.

  • by Razengan on 4/8/24, 4:32 AM

    Maybe humans are the Cyanobacteria of this epoch: Eventually we will transform the atmosphere for the next forms of life to come after us.

  • by ramijames on 4/8/24, 1:34 AM

    At this point, I assume that things are way, way worse than we have been led to believe.

  • by throwaway5959 on 4/8/24, 12:06 AM

    And yet people are still allowed to have more than two kids. Humans are truly insane.

    Edit: Downvote me all you want, it won’t change the fact that we’re consuming resources at a significantly faster pace than the planet can provide them and people having three or more kids are a huge part of the problem, especially in developed countries. Deal with it.