Saturday, May 08, 2004
Letters Editor
300 - 1450 Don Mills Road
Don Mills, Ontario
Canada
M3B 3R5
Landfill bank-wagon
Dear Editor:
Terence Corcoran has actually understated the irrationality of taking credit for greenhouse gas reductions from garbage landfills - by a factor of 23. (The Reducers – scary!, Saturday, May 8, 2004, FP11).
Landfills are a fairly recent technique to handle organic wastes. They also happen to be an emulation, likely inadvertent, of Mother Nature’s ways of sequestering carbon in “sinks” by burying it (waste) and converting it to fossil fuel.
Unfortunately current landfill practice creates imperfect sinks. Landfills generate methane gas which is deemed to be 23 times more effective as a greenhouse gas than the carbon dioxide which would come from simply burning the waste.
Canada is contemplating establishing financial credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “Green” entrepreneurs might multiply their credits 23 fold by actually designing landfill systems to maximize methane production as an alternative to sequestering the carbon in them. It’s not much wonder landfill gas management is high on the priority list of “green” initiatives to reduce emissions. The Reducers will be laughing all the way to the bank if they are successful in establishing this opportunity.
More commentary and information on Canada’s “Offset Consultation Discussion Paper” is available at www.computare.org. Computare is a small name think tank located in Lethbridge, Alberta.
Yours truly,
Duane Pendergast