Global Warming #2: the Indian Landfill Connection

Segregating the recyclable waste. The organic waste. All that is a good thing, no doubt. At least the organic waste doesn’t do any harm, I used to think. Unlike plastics and other wastes, at least nature has microbes and processes to break down organic waste.

 

I realized I wasn’t entirely correct, as I read Spoorthy Raman’s article. The problem lies in the quantity of organic waste we generate, which is then compounded by how landfills operate in India:

“As new layers of waste push older layers down in a landfill, the supply of oxygen is cut off from the lower layers of organic waste, forcing it to undergo anaerobic decomposition.”

 

This anaerobic decomposition releases a cocktail of gases, two of which (methane and carbon dioxide) are “infamous greenhouse gases that warm up our planet and cause climate change”. India’s share of methane generation (as a fraction of its greenhouse gases generation) is much higher than the global average.

 

It’s sad that our contribution to global warming isn’t limited to the usual suspects – coal and fossil fuels – but is also based on how our landfills are overloaded. It just one more item to the list of things that need to change in our steps against global warming…

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