Black plastic bags being tossed onto rubbish trucks or piled up on landfill sites.

For many South Africans, even those who have separated their trash into recyclables and non- recyclables, that’s usually the last thought they give to their garbage.

But the legacy of our rubbish spans way beyond that. 

While the impact on wildlife and our oceans get the headlines, the contribution to global warming, and the fight against it, is mostly underreported.

South Africans most often hear about the greenhouse effects of methane gas on our climate in the context of meat farming. However, many would be surprised by the huge amounts of gas created by trash as it rots and decays in landfill sites, predominantly organic waste like food waste.

When we think about greenhouse gasses the first thing that usually comes to mind is carbon dioxide, with many organisations and individuals focussing on how to lower ‘carbon footprints’.

CO2 however is actually a distant second to methane when it comes to doing the most damage. In fact, the United States Environmental Protection Agency says that methane is about 25 times more harmful than carbon monoxide. This is because methane is much better at trapping radiation (heat) from the sun which in turn leads to global warming.

This is why the City of Cape Town has declared methane enemy number one when it comes to landfill emissions. The City has been running a new, innovative project for the last 18 months to tackle harmful methane emissions from the City’s landfills. It entails safely tapping the methane gas pockets produced by decaying rubbish in the landfill and then burning the gas to eliminate it.

While carbon dioxide is a by-product of burning methane gas, it is less harmful than the methane being released into the atmosphere. The gas extraction and flaring systems have been established at Coastal Park and Bellville South landfills with plans to roll the project out at the Vissershok South landfill. 

The CoCT innovation doesn’t end there. Methane is a highly combustible gas that can be collected and used as a heating fuel in industry, to generate electricity or as a fuel for vehicles. The City is planning to roll out a second phase of this project which will  use the landfill methane to generate electricity, possibly as much as 2 megawatts of energy. Phase 2 of the project is currently in the planning and tendering phases. 

This initiative will be an incredibly useful case study for other local governments across South Africa. If more governments can utilise this process in the future it will lead to a significant reduction in methane gas emissions and improve energy self-sufficiency for these governments.