Waste management in US helps reduce emissions

The switch from coal to natural gas energy production in many US factories has led to a decline in carbon dioxide emissions. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) - the statistical department of the US Energy Department - carbon dioxide emissions are at their lowest since 1994.

Nearly 84 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions are made up of carbon dioxide, whereas methane - the main component of natural gas - only makes up 8.8 per cent, according to a recent report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Coal emits almost double the amount of carbon dioxide than natural gas, when burnt in order to produce electricity.

There has been a 12 per cent drop in energy related emissions between 2005 and 2012. This has been attributed to the increase in the use of natural gas in the production of power from 19 per cent in 2005 to 30 per cent in 2012. This increase has been largely driven by the advances in drilling technologies, which has enabled the use of cheaper fuel supplies. 

Waste management and recycling industries in the US have also lowered their emissions. The EPA report shows that landfills produce 17.5 per cent of the anthropogenic methane emissions in 2011 - the third highest factor. Landfills also produce a large amount of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, however these are down from 147.8 million tonnes in 1990 to 103 million tonnes in 2011.

The EPA report also shows that there are now 5934 waste management sites in the US that turn landfill gas into energy. Altogether these sites can produce 1813 MW of electricity - enough to power one million homes - and 312 million standard cubic feet a day of gas - able to heat 729,000 homes. Sharon H. Kneiss has commented that these figures reflect the investments that the waste industry has made in their facilities and new equipment in an attempt to reduce their emissions.

Unfortunately the US trend hasn't improved the rate of global emissions, which has risen by 15 per cent from 2005 to 2011. The EPA report names China's increasing reliance on using coal to create energy as a means to boost economic growth as the main perpetrator of the increase.