Paper, packaging, food, lawn clippings, leaves, wood, leather, plastics, metals, and petroleum-based synthetic materials make up municipal solid waste.
Since no one solution can accommodate all forms of waste, a "hierarchy of waste management" is used to classify waste management solutions based on their environmental effects.
Trying to work with waste as high up in the waste hierarchy as possible is a core concept of sustainable waste management.Waste to energy should be considered only after waste diversion and recycling waste by reducing intake and packaging.
Perishables that compost in landfills emit methane, a greenhouse gas with a higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide.
More than 20% of the methane emissions come from landfills.
Landfill emissions can travel underground, causing fires and earthquakes, and the fluid or leaching that collects in landfills can pollute groundwater.