Senate Hearing Senate Bill 1663 – Reducing methane emissions from landfills.
Senate Environment, Energy & Technology Committee
Senator Carlyle,
Members of the Committee
My name is Philipp Schmidt-Pathmann and I am the President of the Institute for Energy and Resource Management or IeRM in short. I have been in the field of waste management for 24 years.
IeRM is a 501c3 Non-Profit Organization dedicated to scientific research and education in the field of waste management. Our board of international experts is drawn from government, industry, universities, and non-profit organizations, all of whom have decades of experience in advising governments and successfully implementing waste management programs and systems. For more information on IeRM, please see our website at www.ie-rm.org.
I am testifying today in favor of the bill to reduce methane emissions from landfills.
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- Landfills emit methane and a whole lot of it
- Landfills with landfill gas capture systems do better than landfills without
- But even landfills with elaborate landfill gas capture systems in place recovery less than 50% of the methane from waste.
That brings me to my second point: It is critical not only to require reductions of methane from landfills but to move a step further and phase out landfilling of reactive waste, such as Municipal Solid Waste, altogether, achievable by June 1st, 2030.
The benefits are far reaching:
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- Significant Methane reductions
- Recover of high-quality resources
- Creation of substantial amounts of sustainable jobs
- Removal of overall toxic impacts to air, soil and water
- $Billions in savings to the taxpayer (vs. forever care as landfills are modestly engineered structures that fail sooner or later)
- Retaining millions if not billions in revenues
How can I make such a statement/claim? For decades team members including myself have studied Waste Management systems in the US, Europe and many other places across the world.
One of the big moments in Europe regarding waste management was when 27 countries!!!!! came together and agreed that due to the environmental and economic impacts, the practice of landfilling untreated waste with a “Total Organic Carbon or TOC has to be less than <3%. The rates of GHG reductions, increased and tangible recycling rates, sustainable jobs, environmental improvements etc. are well documented.
Are you aware that US based Waste Management was one of the largest waste service providers in Germany prior to the law phasing out landfilling? And instead of deciding to take advantage of such an opportunity to be part of the solution the company sold all operations and refocused on landfilling in the US?
Are you aware that a single bin system as promoted by them and others is counterproductive in bringing up the recycling rate due to cross contamination? At source separation is critical.
WA State Department of Ecology cannot confirm what actually happens to the so called ‘recyclables’ and there is strong indication that much of what is stated as recycling by the large service providers ends up in landfills somewhere?
It’s all about cost and specifically artificially cheap cost. While Europe has recognized the value of land – and contra the argument given by landfill lobby that Europe doesn’t have enough space to landfill (they do) – made the decision for the health and benefits of its citizens to stop landfilling untreated waste? An even greater benefit to low-income families.
What message do we want to send to future generations? We care about them or we don’t – as not only reducing methane but virtually eliminating methane from landfills is pivotal!
I have two kids and they like to get to the bottom line: The discissions we make today have a great impact on future generations. Do we want to leave them to have to clean up the mess that we created and could have stopped? Do we pass on the exponential costs to the future generations? I urge you to pass this bill and then take it another step further and IeRM would like to work with you to get there.
Thank you for the opportunity to create awareness around such a critical topic
Sincerely,
Philipp Schmidt-Pathmann
President and CEO Institute for Energy and Resource Management