Waste to landfill

Short description

Measures waste to landfill in kg per capita.

Meta data

Unit:

kg per capita

Methodology link:

Methodology

Albania

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Macedonia

Original data

Data:

Waste_to_landfill.csv

Unit for original data:

kg per capita

Date of extraction:

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Data source link:

Eurostat

Rationale

The decomposition of municipal waste in landfills is one of the largest contributors to global anthropogenic methane emissions.1 We include landfill as a potential contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and as a foregone waste recycling opportunity.

1. Powell, Jon T., Timothy G. Townsend, and Julie B. Zimmerman. 2016. ‘Estimates of Solid Waste Disposal Rates and Reduction Targets for Landfill Gas Emissions’. Nature Climate Change 6 (2): 162–65.

Limitations

Where landfill is not reduced due to a decrease in waste production or increased recycling but as a result of waste incineration, some amount of toxic emissions is likely to occur.

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The indicator is relevant to the following innovation systems on this website

Waste and recycling

Waste treatment and recycling have an important role in building a resource-efficient circular economy.