Landfill gas is created when waste in a landfill decomposes.
Instead of allowing landfill gas to escape into the air, the gas can be captured, converted, and used as an energy source. Using the gas helps to reduce odors and other hazards associated with landfill gas emissions, and it helps prevent methane from migrating into the atmosphere and contributing to local smog and global climate change.1 Landfill methane has attracted considerable attention due to its relative ease of installation and its clear environmental benefits. On a pound for pound basis, unflared methane imposes twenty-one times the climate change impact than does CO2. On an electricity production basis, when burning methane that would otherwise be released from a landfill into the atmosphere, a landfill gas fueled electric generator typically avoids the equivalent of 10,000 to 15,000 lbs of CO2 per MWh. In effect such a landfill gas fueled electric generator is offsetting far more CO2 emissions per MWh of electric generation than is emitted from coal plants or any other common form of electric generation.