Mitigating Methane from the Waste Sector

This report by the Global Climate and Health Alliance examines the intersection of methane emissions from the waste and wastewater sectors and human health. It details how improving waste management can reduce tropospheric ozone and other pollutants, thereby preventing premature deaths and diseases, while providing strategies for international, national, and local action.

• The waste sector, comprising wastewater and municipal solid waste, is responsible for one fifth of global anthropogenic methane emissions and 3 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
• Municipal solid waste accounts for approximately 12 percent of global anthropogenic methane emissions, primarily through the anaerobic decomposition of organic materials like food and yard waste. Wastewater contributes roughly 8 percent of these emissions, often stemming from human waste in sewage systems, pit latrines, or anaerobic treatment lagoons.
• Reducing methane from the waste sector can significantly improve public health by lowering tropospheric ozone levels. According to the Global Methane Assessment, such reductions could prevent 45,000 ozone-related deaths and 135,000 emergency room visits for asthma annually, and save 13 billion work hours per year.
• Improved solid waste management provides critical health co-benefits, including the prevention of physical injuries from landfill slides—such as the 2017 event in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that killed 116 people—and the reduction of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases caused by toxic smoke from landfill fires and waste burning.
• Enhanced wastewater treatment and sanitation can prevent the spread of diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, Ebola, and polio. The report notes that in 2016, inadequate sanitation and unsafe drinking water were linked to 829,000 global deaths, accounting for 60 percent of global diarrheal deaths that year.
• Nigeria's 2018 National Action Plan to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants aims to recover 50 percent of methane from landfills and reduce 50 percent of methane from open waste burning by 2030. Full implementation of the plan's 22 priority measures is estimated to reduce national methane emissions by 61 percent and prevent 7,000 premature deaths from air pollution by 2030.
• Indonesia is the world's largest emitter of wastewater methane and the third largest emitter in the waste biogas sector. The report suggests that using anaerobic treatment with gas collection could reduce wastewater greenhouse gas emissions by 52–87 percent compared to business-as-usual scenarios.
• In India, wastewater treatment plants can only handle 37 percent of the country's generated sewage. As of 2010, India had the highest per capita rate of open defecation globally, with an estimated 652 million people (50 percent of the population) relying on it.

APA

Nguyen, L., Quintana, A., Rowland, A., & Vegh-Gaynor, G. (2023). Mitigating Methane from the Waste Sector. Global Climate and Health Alliance. https://climateandhealthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/MethaneReport-Waste-FINAL.pdf

Chicago

Nguyen, Linh, Amanda Quintana, Amy Rowland, and Gabriel Vegh-Gaynor. Mitigating Methane from the Waste Sector. Global Climate and Health Alliance, 2023. https://climateandhealthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/MethaneReport-Waste-FINAL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Nguyen |first1=Linh |last2=Quintana |first2=Amanda |last3=Rowland |first3=Amy |last4=Vegh-Gaynor |first4=Gabriel |title=Mitigating Methane from the Waste Sector |publisher=Global Climate and Health Alliance |date=August 2023 |url=https://climateandhealthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/MethaneReport-Waste-FINAL.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{nguyen2023mitigating, author = {Nguyen, Linh and Quintana, Amanda and Rowland, Amy and Vegh-Gaynor, Gabriel}, title = {{Mitigating Methane from the Waste Sector}}, institution = {Global Climate and Health Alliance}, year = {2023}, month = aug, url = {https://climateandhealthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/MethaneReport-Waste-FINAL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }