Carbon-negative transition by utilizing overlooked carbon in waste landfills

Shijun Ma; Mingzhen Lu; Guang Yang; Yuehao Zhi; Zutao Ouyang; Jing Meng; Heran Zheng; Ningxin Huang; Zhiying Yang; Chuanbin Zhou

doi:10.59717/j.xinn-geo.2024.100109

The Innovation Geoscience > 2025 Vol. 3 > No. 1 > 100109

Next Article Previous Article

ARTICLE Open Access

Cite PDF

Carbon-negative transition by utilizing overlooked carbon in waste landfills

1.
Stake Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
2.
College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
3.
Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe 87501, USA
4.
Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford 94305, USA
5.
Department of Environmental Studies, New York University, New York 10003, USA
6.
The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
7.
School of Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China

Show all affliationsShow less

More Information

Corresponding author: cbzhou@rcees.ac.cn
Received Date: January 25, 2024

Accepted Date: October 28, 2024

Published Online: November 27, 2024

The Innovation Geoscience 3(1), https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-geo.2024.100109 | Cite this article

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

DownLoad: Full size image

PUBLIC SUMMARY

PUBLIC SUMMARY
1. A new model offers insights into landfill carbon stock accounting.
  
  The carbon stock from landfills at the prefecture-level in China is estimated from 2001 to 2020.
  
  The carbon stock in landfills holds substantial resource potential and environmental impact.
  
  Landfill mining and in-situ restoration could transform landfills into carbon-negative sectors.

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

Landfills play a crucial role in urban climate solutions, as the decomposition of their “hidden” carbon stock contributes to 8.8% of global methane emissions. While controlling landfill gas emissions is the most commonly used intervention, a systematic approach to manage the carbon cycle in landfills remains elusive. In this study, we developed a quantitative solid-water-gas coupling model to estimate the carbon stock in landfills across 346 cities in China. Our findings reveal a standing landfill carbon stock 506.3 ± 4.2 Tg, which could potentially substitute for 20% of soil organic carbon in green spaces and 1 year of residential electricity consumption of cities. Our scenario analyses show that by implementing a life-cycle package of interventions (incl., input minimization, stock utilization, and leakage reduction), the total carbon stock in landfills could be reduced to 230.1 Tg with a negative annual carbon emission (-57.1 Tg CO₂ eq/year) reached by 2030. These interventions could cumulativly cut greenhouse gas (GHG) by 753.3 Tg, representing 62.2% of the landfill-related GHG emissions and 2.0% of China’s carbon debt towards the 1.5°C warming targets. Landfill mining contributes 52.3% of these reductions, while in-situ aerobic restoration accounts for 14.4%, positioning landfills as a potential carbon-negative sector that can drive cities towards carbon-neutrality.
- landfill /
- carbon stock /
- greenhouse gases /
- municipal solid waste /
- city /
- scenarios

FullText(HTML)

REFERENCES

[1]	Lu M., Zhou C., Wang C., et al. (2024). Worldwide scaling of waste generation in urban systems. Nat. Cities 1:126−135. DOI:10.1038/s44284-023-00021-5 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[2]	Churkina G., Brown D., and Keoleian G. (2010). Carbon stored in human settlements: the conterminous United States. Global Change Biol. 16:135−143. DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.02002.x View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[3]	Ge S. and Zhao S. (2017). Organic carbon storage change in China's urban landfills from 1978-2014. Environ. Res. Lett. 12: 104013. DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/aa81df View in Article Google Scholar
[4]	Stubbins A., Law K., Munoz S., et al. (2021). Plastics in the Earth system. Science 373:51−55. DOI:10.1126/science.abb0354 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[5]	Zhang Y., Yang Z. and Yu X. (2015). Urban metabolism: A review of current knowledge and directions for future study. Environ. Sci. Technol. 49:11247−11263. DOI:10.1021/acs.est.5b03060 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[6]	Cao Z., Myers R., Lupton R., et al. (2020). The sponge effect and carbon emission mitigation potentials of the global cement cycle. Nat. Commun. 11: 3777. DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-17583-w View in Article Google Scholar
[7]	Fei X., Fang M. and Wang Y. (2021). Climate change affects land-disposed waste. Nat. Clim. Change 11:1004−1005. DOI:10.1038/s41558-021-01220-5 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[8]	Climate trace-independent greenhouse gas emissions tracking. (2022) https://climatetrace.org/ View in Article Google Scholar
[9]	Duren R., Thorpe A., Foster K., et al. (2019). California's methane super-emitters. Nature 575:180−184. DOI:10.1038/s41586-019-1720-3 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[10]	McKeever J., Jervis D., Mahapatra G., et al. (2022). Using satellites to uncover large methane emissions from landfills. Sci. Adv. 8 :eabn9683. DOI:10.1126/sciadv.abn9683 View in Article Google Scholar
[11]	Etienne R. and Kathryn M. (2022). Looking ahead to COP27—from climate pledges to action: The Global Methane Pledge—opportunities and risks. WIDER Working Paper 2022/131. DOI:10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2022/264-5 View in Article Google Scholar
[12]	Bihalowicz J., Rogula-Kozlowska W. and Krasuski A. (2021). Contribution of landfill fires to air pollution - An assessment methodology. Waste Manage. 125:182−191. DOI:10.1016/j.wasman.2021.02.046 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[13]	Kaza S., Yao L., Bhada-Tata P., et al. (2018). What a waste 2.0: A global snapshot of solid waste management to 2050. (World Bank Publications View in Article Google Scholar
[14]	He P., Chen L., Shao L., et al. (2019). Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill: A source of microplastics. -Evidence of microplastics in landfill leachate. Water Res. 159:38−45. DOI:10.1016/j.watres.2019.04.060 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[15]	Waste management-a man made disaster (Society of Biological Sciences and Rural Development 2020), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342588994_WASTE_MANAGEMENT-A_MAN_MADE_DISASTER_1_2 View in Article Google Scholar
[16]	Cai B., Lou Z., Wang J., et al. (2018). CH₄ mitigation potentials from China landfills and related environmental co-benefits. Sci. Adv. 4 :eaar8400. DOI:10.1126/sciadv.aar8400 View in Article Google Scholar
[17]	Chandel M. K., Kwok G., Jackson R. B., et al. (2012). The potential of waste-to-energy in reducing GHG emissions. Carbon Manag. 3:133−144. DOI:10.4155/cmt.12.11 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[18]	Mian M. M., Zeng X., Bin Nasry A. A. N., et al. (2017). Municipal solid waste management in China: A comparative analysis. J. Mater. Cycles. Waste 19:1127−1135. DOI:10.1007/s10163-016-0509-9 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[19]	Welford M. R. and Yarbrough R. A. (2021). Urbanization. Welford M. R. and Yarbrough R. A. (eds). Human-environment interactions: An introduction (Springer International Publishing: Cham), pp 193-214. DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-56032-4_8 View in Article Google Scholar
[20]	Stegmann P., Daioglou V., Londo M., et al. (2022). Plastic futures and their CO₂ emissions. Nature 612:272−276. DOI:10.1038/s41586-022-05422-5 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[21]	Scharff H. (2014). Landfill reduction experience in The Netherlands. Waste Manage. 34:2218−2224. DOI:10.1016/j.wasman.2014.05.019 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[22]	Wang Y., Levis J. and Barlaz M. (2020). An assessment of the dynamic global warming impact associated with long-term emissions from landfills. Environ. Sci. Technol. 54:1304−1313. DOI:10.1021/acs.est.9b04066 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[23]	Powell J., Townsend T. and Zimmerman J. (2016). Estimates of solid waste disposal rates and reduction targets for landfill gas emissions. Nat. Clim. Change 6:162−165. DOI:10.1038/nclimate2804 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[24]	Laner D., Cencic O., Svensson N., et al. (2016). Quantitative analysis of critical factors for the climate impact of landfill mining. Environ. Sci. Technol. 50:6882−6891. DOI:10.1021/acs.est.6b01275 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[25]	Fei X., Guo Y., Wang Y., et al. (2022). The long-term fates of land-disposed plastic waste. Nat. Rev. Earth Env. 3:733−735. DOI:10.1038/s43017-022-00354-0 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[26]	Burnside W. (2018). Landfill mining. Nat. Sustain. 1:156−156. DOI:10.1038/s41893-018-0058-4 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[27]	Brandstatter C., Laner D. and Fellner J. (2015). Carbon pools and flows during lab-scale degradation of old landfilled waste under different oxygen and water regimes. Waste Manage. 40:100−111. DOI:10.1016/j.wasman.2015.03.011 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[28]	Zhou C., Huang H., Cao A., et al. (2015). Modeling the carbon cycle of the municipal solid waste management system for urban metabolism. Ecol. Model. 318:150−156. DOI:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.11.027 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[29]	Schiller G., Muller F. and Ortlepp R. (2017). Mapping the anthropogenic stock in Germany: Metabolic evidence for a circular economy. Resour. Conserv. Recy. 123:93−107. DOI:10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.08.007 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[30]	Ma S., Zhou C., Chi C., et al. (2020). Estimating physical composition of municipal solid waste in China by applying artificial neural network method. Environ. Sci. Technol. 54:9609−9617. DOI:10.1021/acs.est.0c01802 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[31]	Zhou C., Ma S., Yu X., et al. (2022). A comparison study of bottom‐up and top‐down methods for analyzing the physical composition of municipal solid waste. J. Ind. Ecol. 26 :240-251. DOI:10.1111/jiec.13128 View in Article Google Scholar
[32]	Ministry of housing and urban-rural development of the people’s republic of China. China Urban-Rural Construction Statistical Yearbook (2001-2020 View in Article Google Scholar
[33]	Cai B., Liu J., Zeng X., et al. (2013). Estimation of CH₄ emissions from landfills in China based on point emissions sources. Adv. Clim. Chang. Res. 9:406−413. DOI:10.3969/j.issn.1673-1719.2013.06.003 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[34]	Fei F., Wen Z. and De Clercq D. (2019). Spatio-temporal estimation of landfill gas energy potential: A case study in China. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev. 103:217−226. DOI:10.1016/j.rser.2018.12.036 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[35]	Cai B., Wang J., Long Y., et al. (2015). Evaluating the impact of odors from the 1955 landfills in China using a bottom-up approach. J. Environ. Manage. 164:206−214. DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.09.009 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[36]	Janssens-Maenhout G., Crippa M., Guizzardi D., et al. (2019). EDGAR v4.3.2 Global Atlas of the three major greenhouse gas emissions for the period 1970-2012. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 11 :959-1002. DOI:10.5194/essd-11-959-2019 View in Article Google Scholar
[37]	Nie Y. (2013). Handbook on solid waste management and technology (Chemical Industry Press View in Article Google Scholar
[38]	Porter S., Reay D., Higgins P., et al. (2016). A half-century of production-phase greenhouse gas emissions from food loss & waste in the global food supply chain. Sci. Total Environ. 571:721−729. DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.041 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[39]	National earth system science data center-soil subcenter. (2022). National Science & Technology Infrastructure View in Article Google Scholar
[40]	De Sousa L., Poggio L., Batjes N., et al. (2020). SoilGrids 2.0: Producing soil information for the globe with quantified spatial uncertainty. SOIL 7 :217–240. DOI:10.5194/soil-7-217-2021 View in Article Google Scholar
[41]	Chhay L., Reyad M., Suy R., et al. (2018). Municipal solid waste generation in China: Influencing factor analysis and multi-model forecasting. J. Mater. Cycles Waste 20:1761−1770. DOI:10.1007/s10163-018-0743-4 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[42]	Achievements of municipal solid waste sorting in Beijing for half a year: the separation rate of kitchen waste increased by 12 times. (2020). http://www.beijing.gov.cn/ywdt/gzdt/202011/t20201104_2128285.html View in Article Google Scholar
[43]	Li Y., Jin Y., Borrion A., et al. (2019). Current status of food waste generation and management in China. Bioresource Technol. 273:654−665. DOI:10.1016/j.biortech.2018.10.083 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[44]	Winterstetter A., Wille E., Nagels P., et al. (2018). Decision making guidelines for mining historic landfill sites in Flanders. Waste Manage. 77:225−237. DOI:10.1016/j.wasman.2018.03.049 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[45]	International Energy Agency. (2020). World Energy Outlook 2020 View in Article Google Scholar
[46]	Liu F., Wu H., Zhao Y., et al. Mapping high resolution national soil information grids of China. Sci. Bull. 67 :328-340. DOI:10.1016/j.scib.2021.10.013 View in Article Google Scholar
[47]	Zhiyan consulting. (2022). In-depth analysis and investment scale forecast report of China Plastic Products Industry market in 2022-2028 View in Article Google Scholar
[48]	China Packaging Federation. (2022). Market research report: Status quo of China plastic packaging market in 2022 View in Article Google Scholar
[49]	Ghinea C., Drăgoi E. N., Comăniţă E., et al. (2016). Forecasting municipal solid waste generation using prognostic tools and regression analysis. J. Environ. Manage. 182:80−93. DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.07.026 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[50]	Gu B., Tang X., Liu L., et al. (2021). The recyclable waste recycling potential towards zero waste cities - A comparison of three cities in China. J. Clean. Prod. 295 : DOI:10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126358 View in Article Google Scholar
[51]	National development and reform commission ministry of housing and urban-rural development of the people’s republic of China (2020). The 14^th five-year plan for the development of municipal solid waste classification and treatment facilities View in Article Google Scholar
[52]	United Nations Environment Programme. (2021). Emissions Gap Report 2021 View in Article Google Scholar
[53]	Zheng J., Duan H., Zhou S., et al. (2021). Limiting global warming to below 1.5°C from 2°C: An energy-system-based multi-model analysis for China. Energ. Econ. 100 :105355. DOI:10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105355 View in Article Google Scholar
[54]	Jones P. T., Geysen D., Tielemans Y., et al. (2013). Enhanced landfill mining in view of multiple resource recovery: A critical review. J. Clean. Prod. 55:45−55. DOI:10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.05.021 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[55]	Krook J., Svensson N. and Eklund M. (2012). Landfill mining: A critical review of two decades of research. Waste Manage. 32:513−520. DOI:10.1016/j.wasman.2011.10.015 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar Scopus
[56]	Ministry of ecology and environment of the people's republic of China (2023). The people’s republic of China fourth national communication on climate change View in Article Google Scholar
[57]	Weng Y., Fujiwara T., Houng H., et al. (2015). Management of landfill reclamation with regard to biodiversity preservation global warming mitigation and landfill mining: experiences from the Asia-Pacific region. J. Clean. Prod. 104:364−373. DOI:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.05.014 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[58]	Zari M., Smith R., Wright C., et al. (2022). Health and environmental impact assessment of landfill mining activities: A case study in Norfolk UK. Heliyon 8 :DOI:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11594 View in Article Google Scholar
[59]	Yablonovitch E., Deckman H. (2023). Scalable economical and stable sequestration of agricultural fixed carbon. P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 120:e2217695120. DOI:10.1073/pnas.2217695120 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar

Cited by

ABOUT THIS ARTICLE

Cite this article:

Ma S., Lu M., Yang G., et al. (2025). Carbon-negative transition by utilizing overlooked carbon in waste landfills. The Innovation Geoscience 3:100109. https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-geo.2024.100109

Ma S., Lu M., Yang G., et al. (2025). Carbon-negative transition by utilizing overlooked carbon in waste landfills. The Innovation Geoscience 3:100109. https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-geo.2024.100109

Welcome!

To request copyright permission to republish or share portions of our works, please visit Copyright Clearance Center's (CCC) Marketplace website at marketplace.copyright.com.

Standard PDF

Extended PDF

Figures(7)

Article Metrics

Article views(7183) PDF downloads(1964)

Carbon-negative transition by utilizing overlooked carbon in waste landfills

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

PUBLIC SUMMARY

ABSTRACT

REFERENCES

ABOUT THIS ARTICLE

Cite this article:

Welcome!

Share

Article Metrics

Relative Articles

Cited by

Catalog

{{newsColumn.name}}

Official Account

{{newsColumn.name}}

Stay connected

{{newsColumn.name}}

Carbon-negative transition by utilizing overlooked carbon in waste landfills

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

PUBLIC SUMMARY

ABSTRACT

REFERENCES

ABOUT THIS ARTICLE

Cite this article:

Welcome!

Share

Article Metrics

Relative Articles

Cited by

Catalog

Export File

Citation

Format

Content

{{newsColumn.name}}

Official Account

{{newsColumn.name}}

Stay connected

{{newsColumn.name}}