New EPA Guidelines Reduce Landfill Emissions and Improve Environment

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new guidelines that will convert landfill emissions into electricity to help preserve the environment.

Every week, GreenDrop prevents roughly 100 tons of electronics and other objects from being thrown into landfills. Sadly, these landfills are still filling up each year and causing serious climate issues. These new guidelines will force landfill owners to decrease their emissions of methane, carbon dioxide, and other toxins.

According to Good News Network, landfill owners will be required to be responsible for setting up their own ways to prevent these toxic gasses from entering the atmosphere. Environmentalists have been fighting landfills and their toxic emissions for years, but some landfill owners aren’t as excited over the new rules.

Some landfill owners are skeptical about whether or not they’ll be able to implement these new regulations.

“If they’re really concerned about being able to comply with the rule,” added Anne Germain, director of waste and recycling at the Environmental Industry Associations, “they have the opportunity to close.”

Many predict these new guidelines will force smaller landfill owners out of business because of the striker regulations and EPA cost analysis.

“We thought that the EPA costs were low,” said Pat Sullivan, senior vice president at SCS Engineers, an environmental consulting firm. “We didn’t think they did a good job of recognizing the differences in cost when you’re looking at smaller landfills. They used the data they had, which was submitted to them from the larger facilities.”

Renewable Energy reports that the guidelines were pushed through by the U.S. EPA Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP). The two regulations were published on August 29, 2016: