Minimizing and Managing Our Trash
KUDOs to the Monmouth County Reclamation Center
Have you ever considered where the food we eat and the goods (stuff) we use come from, or where they go
when you finish with them? Everything we use goes through a life cycle, and each stage of the life cycle has
environmental impacts, including climate change. However, reducing the use of materials in every stage of the
life cycle minimizes the environmental impact associated with the stuff we use.
All products are made from materials found in or on the earth, “Virgin” or “raw” materials, such as trees or ore,
are harvested directly from the earth, then transported and processed. These activities use a large amount of
energy, and burning fossil fuels to supply this energy results in greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling generally
uses less energy than extracting and processing raw materials, so making new products from materials that have
already been used (recycled materials) can save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Products often require a great deal of energy to create, which results in greenhouse gas emissions. When a
product is made with less material, or materials made with recycled content, less energy is needed to extract,
transport, and process raw materials.
End-of-Life Management
End-of-life management is what happens to our stuff after it has been used. How we manage our goods at the
end of their current life can make a big difference in our environmental footprint.
 Reuse, or using a product more than once, prevents the need to create the product from scratch, which
saves resources and energy while also preventing pollution.
o Green Tip: Donate your used electronics and media. Old electronics (CD players, DVDs, VCRs)
make great donations to charitable agencies that provide holiday gifts to low income families.
Before you throw away old CDs or DVDs, try trading them with friends, donating them to charitable
organizations, nursing homes, libraries, or hospitals.
 Recycle, it saves energy. Manufacturing goods from recycled materials typically requires less energy
than producing goods from virgin materials. Recycling paper products also preserves forests so they
can continue to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
o Green Tip: Remember to recycle. Learn how and where to recycle your electronics and other
common recyclables like paper, plastic, and glass.

Compost, it diverts organic wastes from landfills. When organic materials like food scraps decompose
in the anaerobic conditions of a landfill, they produce methane, a greenhouse gas over 20 times more
potent than carbon dioxide. During composting, the material decomposes in the presence of oxygen,
avoiding methane production.
o Green Tip: Start your own compost pile. Learn how to create your own compost pile at home.
Use food scraps, yard trimmings, and other organic waste to create a compost pile. Compost can
help increase soil water retention, decrease erosion, and replace chemical fertilizers.
.

Landfill, contains Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) more commonly known as garbage. When organic
materials go to a landfill, they decompose and produce methane gas, a greenhouse gas over 20 times
more potent than carbon dioxide.
o Green Tip: Be waste conscious
Today some landfills collect landfill gas and use it to generate electricity or as a fuel for equipment such as
boilers. Energy recovery from waste is the conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into useable heat,
electricity, or fuel through a variety of processes. Converting non-recyclable waste materials into electricity
and heat – generally through combustion or landfill gas recovery – generates a renewable energy source and
reduces carbon emissions by avoiding the need for energy from fossil sources. In addition, these methods
reduce generation of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from landfills.
Overview of Greenhouse Gases
Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere are called greenhouse gases.

Carbon dioxide: Carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas
and oil), solid waste, trees and wood products, and also as a result of certain chemical reaction (e.g.,
manufacture of cement). Carbone dioxide is removed from the atmosphere (or “sequestered”) when it is
absorbed by plants as part of the biological carbon cycle.

Methane: Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane
emissions also results from livestock and other agricultural practices and by the decay of organic waste
in municipal solid waste landfills.

Nitrous oxide: Nitrous oxide is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, as well as during
combustion of fossil fuels and solid waste.

Fluorinated gases: Hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride are synthetic,
powerful greenhouse gases that are emitted from a variety of industrial processes. Fluorinated gases are
sometimes used a substitutes for stratospheric ozone-depleting substances (e.g., chlorofluorocarbons,
hydrochlorofluorocarbons, and halons). These gases are typically emitted in smaller quantities, but
because they are potent greenhouse gases, they are sometimes referred to as High Global Warming
Potential gases (“High GWP gases).
How long do they stay in the atmosphere? Each of these gases can remain in the atmosphere for different
amounts of time, ranging from a few years to thousands of years. All of these gases remain in the atmosphere
long enough to become well mixed, meaning that the amount that is measured in the atmosphere is roughly the
same all over the world, regardless of the source of the emissions.
How strongly do they impact global temperatures? Some gases are more effective than others at making the
planet warmer and “thickening the Earth’s blanket”.
Good Management of Landfills
Landfill Gas Energy (LFG) emitted from decomposing garbage is a reliable and renewable fuel option that
remains largely untapped at many landfills across the United States, despite its many benefits. Generating
energy from LFG creates a number of environmental benefits and it directly reduces greenhouse gas
emissions.
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfills the third-largest human-generated source of methane emissions in the
United States; release an estimated 84.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to the atmosphere in
2011 alone. Given that all landfills generate methane, it makes sense to use them for the beneficial purpose of
energy generation rather than emitting it to the atmosphere. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas that is a
key contributor to global climate change (over 21 times stronger than carbon dioxide). Methane also has a short
(10-year) atmospheric life. Because methane is both potent and short-lived, reducing methane emissions from
MSW landfills is one of the best ways to achieve a near-term beneficial impact in mitigating global climate
change.
It is estimated that an LFG energy project will capture roughly 60 to 90 percent of the methane emitted from the
landfill, depending on system design and effectiveness. The captured methane is destroyed (converted to water
and the much less potent carbon dioxide) when the gas is burned to produce electricity.
Carbon dioxide emissions from MSW landfills are not considered to contribute to global climate change
because the carbon was contained in recently living biomass. The same carbon dioxide would be emitted as a
result of the natural decomposition of the organic waste materials outside the landfill environment.
Monmouth County Reclamation Center (MCRC)
MCRC has a landfill located in Tinton Falls, NJ. It currently captures landfill methane gas and converts it into
electricity and sells it. MCRC currently operates two landfill waste-to-energy facilities and produces enough
electricity to offset up to $1 million per year of the county’s electricity costs. This reduces air pollution,
including the thousands of pounds per day of greenhouse gas emissions.
MCRC is currently under contract to build a leachate (hazardous liquids created inside landfill) treatment
facility. The new wastewater treatment facility will remove over 500,000 pounds of nitrogen and over 1,000
pounds of heavy metals from the landfill waste stream every year to protect the environment.