If the United States is going to meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments under the Paris Agreement, it is going to have to significantly overhaul its waste management practices. At least that is the conclusion of Shift Energy Holdings CTO Adrian Tylim. Writing in Waste Dive, he notes that landfills account for 20% of the country’s emissions of methane, a gas with a global warming potential 25 times higher than carbon dioxide. According to Mr. Tylim, Americans must increase recycling rates, which have fallen in recent years, and should borrow strategies from the European Union and Japan for putting municipal solid waste to better use, such as generating energy.
