Waste dashboard: alabama
Landfills across the country are causing massive amounts of global warming through methane -- and Alabama is the tenth-largest emitter of landfill methane in the country. After decades of being a dumping ground for toxic waste, sewage, and trash from across the country, Alabama now ranks tenth in the nation for landfill methane emissions. Pollution from landfills poses dire health harms to Alabama communities, with residents near landfills experiencing migraines, respiratory concerns, dizziness, noxious odors, and decreased quality of life. Communities of color experience these impacts disporportionately; in Alabama, Black people are 2.4 times more likely to live within 1 mile of a landfill than their white counterparts.
Industrious Labs’ analysis is based on the following data sources:
U.S. EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) 2022: Facilities emitting over 25,000 metric tons of CO2-equivalent/year. Industrial sectors included: Chemical Manufacturing, Food Processing, Metals, Minerals, Mining, Other Manufacturing, Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems, Petroleum Refineries, Pulp and Paper, and Waste.
U.S. EPA Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) (July 2023)
U.S. EPA GHG Equivalency calculator
*MT = metric tons
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has "been understating methane emissions from landfills by a factor of two," said Susan Thorneloe, a senior chemical engineer at the EPA who has worked on the agency's methane estimation methods since the 1980s.
Part of the problem may be that the EPA's methods for estimating landfill methane emissions are outdated and flawed, Thornloe said. Thorneloe helped craft the current estimate method, and she said it "was developed over 30 years ago using empirical data for about 40 landfills.”
Citing new research out of California, she has come to believe the agency underestimates emissions.” - NPR , July 13, 2021.
