Landfills contribute 20% of Canada's methane emissions and are a priority target for emission reduction. In 2015, 63% of methane emissions from landfills evaded capture and were emitted into the atmosphere, representing a significant gap in mitigating methane release.
With landfills mainly managed at the municipal level, they are critical for achieving net-zero emissions at both the local and national scales. With the burden on municipalities to manage landfill emissions, new and innovative mechanisms are urgently required for improved methane capture.
The Mitigation of Methane Emission Hot-spots from Municipal Landfills project aims to assess the impact of hot-spots associated with landfill infrastructure on methane emissions through new developments in hyperspectral imaging and state-of-the-art expertise in methane monitoring.
Working with municipal partners across southern Ontario, our hope is to provide tools that will help municipalities to better monitor and reduce landfill emissions, applicable to landfills across the country, and contribute to federal priorities for reducing national emissions and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
News
New publication on soil column incubation experiments that mimic landfill methane hot-spots
Undergraduate students Tara Ferguson, Olivia Penn and Melissa LeBlonc co-author the paper with co-Principal Investigator Fereidoun Rezanezhad and Principal Investigator Laura Hug in Journal of Environmental Management.
Mitigation of Methane Emission Hot-spots project brings together researchers and local stakeholders for training workshop
The student-led workshop combined presentations and hands-on demonstrations to showcase the project’s research advances in methane detection at hot-spots in landfills.
Team member Tara Ferguson receives Senior Undergraduate Science Research Award for her methane research
Tara conducted soil column experiments to quantify methane oxidation capacity in landfill cover soils.