As awareness of our dwindling resources on earth spreads, we are forced to search for alternates that are both sustainable and cost-efficient. While popular methods of generating energy in ways that conserve fossil fuels like solar panels and wind farms are helpful in reducing a fraction of the demand for non-renewable resources, what we need is a reliable, consistent and long-term source of energy. Recently, another way of producing alternate energy has been implemented: the burning of landfill gas, or more specifically, the methane in the landfill gas. Emissions from landfills have long been regarded as unfortunate side effects of fermented trash being buried in the earth but as of late, the usefulness of methane as an energy source has gained fame. Landfills are key features of a functional society; now that we know that they have the potential to generate power as well as store our garbage, why not go further than fully utilizing this vast supply of stored energy…we can enhance it.

With over one hundred landfill gas-to-energy plants functioning under the command of Waste Management, Inc., in the United States, this newly found spout of alternative energy powers nearly 1.1 million homes. As reported in Edward Humes’ work Garbology investigating the relationship between our modern world and trash, the Puente Hills landfill alone, recently closed, has the capacity to “power a hundred thousand homes (which is exactly what is done…)”with the gas being generated. Not only that, gas flow from landfills continues for up to twenty years after being closed. The Atlantic published in April of 2013 that after the closing of the Puente Hills landfill, the new landfill in the city of Mesquite has space to accept “20,000 tons of trash per day for the next one hundred years” while Puente Hills only took in 13,000 tons daily. With energy of this magnitude and sustainability available and currently being used to power large-scale areas, it is now time to pursue the concept of the enhancing its production.

Paper, estimated to make up one third of landfill municipal solid waste despite efforts to recycle, is held accountable for the generation of 47.2 million tons of methane and mixed gases, roughly 35% of all generated gas. What these numbers propose is the idea of categorized landfills—sorting our trash into separate landfills to increase methane yield and boost the generation of energy. If combined only with organic waste, paper may generate more gas than assorted refuse, a potential major advance in the search for alternative energy. Landfills will continue to be key features of our societies; why not fully utilize them in all aspects of their nature? The enhancement of methane generation in landfills would be monumental; the only potential drawbacks are the significant decrease in recycled paper and consequential increase in deforestation and water use for the manufacture of paper.

However, despite existing take-back centers, separate disposal bins and widespread promotion of paper recycling, the Environmental Protection Agency reports that recoverable paper waste constitutes almost 30% of landfill waste. Unrecoverable paper waste makes up about 20% of total landfill waste. If paper waste comprises this percentage of total waste as it is, why not intentionally include it as a part of landfill refuse to enhance the production of energy? Clearly, a reassessment of the benefits of more recycling versus more energy is crucial. If sorted landfills do indeed yield more methane than do assorted landfills, we will be able to secure years upon years more of sustainable energy. This would mean less investment in costly windfarms or solar farms where the supply of power is, though abundant, inconsistent, as well as in the area of nuclear energy where the slightest imperfection can mean tragedy.

Our landfills are capable of becoming the next major fuel source of the world. Now that we are aware of the benefits of methane gas, it is time to take another step: augmenting its production. Because paper waste is credited with the production of a large percentage of landfill emissions, it seems natural that a strictly organic waste and paper waste landfill would generate more methane than would an assorted landfill with all manners of plastics and other garbage stifling its output of methane. Landfills, ever present and ever essential to our modern day communities, possess the consistency and capacity to be the new face of sustainable energy. A brighter, cleaner and more sustainable future can be found in the forgotten wastelands where our unwanted junk lies discarded beside the energy of the future.