List of Resources Related to Landfill Gas and Waste Management
- Landfill Gas (LFG) Energy Resources
- Other EPA Programs
- Carbon Standards and GHG Accounting Protocols
- Municipal Solid Waste Management
- Organic Waste Diversion
Landfill Gas (LFG) Energy Resources
Example Procurement Files – Lists several example procurement files issued by landfill owners as a reference for other communities. Requests for proposals and other types of procurements provide landfill owners a way to evaluate respondents for LFG energy project development.
Resources for Funding LFG Energy Projects – Provides information on key funding resources available to LFG energy projects.
Partner Award Winners – Provides information about successful energy projects that have won an LMOP award for excellence and creativity. Several write-ups link to profiles that contain additional detail about the projects.
State Agencies – Assists those searching for state-specific information related to permits and regulations that may affect LFG energy projects, via a table of key state organizations’ websites. The list represents the main state agencies and departments involved in topics such as air quality permitting, energy policy and public utility regulation.
Other EPA Programs
AgSTAR – Promotes the use of biogas recovery systems to reduce methane emissions from the agricultural sector and provides information and participates in events to further support anaerobic digestion implementation, including co-digestion of food waste.
Center for Corporate Climate Leadership – Serves as a resource center for organizations looking to expand their work in the area of greenhouse gas (GHG) measurement and management.
RE-Powering America’s Land – Encourages development of renewable energy projects on currently or formerly contaminated landfills by identifying site potential and providing other resources to those interested in potential sites.
Energy Resources for State, Local, and Tribal Governments – Provides technical assistance, analytical tools and outreach support to state, local and tribal governments. The state program helps develop policies and programs that can reduce GHG emissions and lower energy costs. The local program helps governments meet sustainability goals with cost-effective climate change mitigation and clean energy strategies.
Green Power Partnership – Encourages organizations to use green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use, assists organizations with procuring electricity generated from renewable resources and promotes the organizations’ green power leadership.
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Resource Center – Provides tools as well as information about policy and technologies to stakeholders interested in reducing air pollution and water usage associated with electric power generation by increasing the use of CHP.
Global Methane Initiative – International public-private partnership focused on reducing barriers to the recovery and use of methane as a valuable energy source in three sectors: biogas (agriculture, municipal solid waste and wastewater), coal mines and oil and gas systems.
Carbon Standards and GHG Accounting Protocols
ACR Methodology for LFG Destruction and Beneficial Use Projects – Provides the quantification framework, including eligibility and monitoring requirements, for the creation of carbon credits for GHG emission reductions resulting from the destruction or utilization of LFG from eligible U.S. landfills. This methodology results in high-quality carbon credits by ensuring that the emission reductions are real, additional, robustly quantified, permanent and independently verified by an accredited third party.
Climate Action Reserve (CAR) U.S. Landfill Project Protocol – Provides guidance to quantify, report and verify GHG emission reductions associated with installing an LFG collection and destruction system at a landfill. The protocol provides eligibility rules, methods to calculate reductions, performance-monitoring instructions and procedures for reporting information to CAR.
CAR U.S. Organic Waste Digestion Project Protocol – Provides a GHG accounting methodology for GHG reduction projects that divert and anaerobically digest eligible organic waste and/or wastewater streams that otherwise would have gone to uncontrolled anaerobic storage, treatment and disposal systems such as solid waste landfills or onsite anaerobic wastewater treatment facilities. The protocol also addresses the co-digestion of eligible organic waste streams with livestock manure.
CAR U.S. Organic Waste Composting Project Protocol – Provides a GHG accounting methodology for GHG reduction projects that divert and compost municipal food waste and other eligible organic waste that otherwise would have gone to solid waste landfills.
Gold Standard – An internationally based, best practice standard for carbon offset projects that also demonstrate social and economic benefits.
Greenhouse Gas Protocol – Offers standards, guidance, tools and training to help entities measure and manage GHG emissions.
The Climate Registry (TCR) – Provides a Carbon Footprint Registry, multiple GHG accounting protocols, guidance documents and a verification protocol for entities in North America.
Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program and Standard – Includes a standard for rules and requirements projects must follow to be certified, as well as independent auditing, accounting methodologies and a registry system. These components result in GHG emission reductions or removals that are real, measurable, additional, permanent, independently verified, conservatively estimated, uniquely numbered and transparent.
Municipal Solid Waste Management
EPA Office of Land and Emergency Management, Sustainable Materials Management – Sustainable materials management (SMM) is a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their entire life cycles. SMM represents a change in how society thinks about the use of natural resources and environmental protection. Looking at a product's entire life cycle can reveal new opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, conserve resources and reduce costs.
Organic Waste Diversion
EPA Office of Land and Emergency Management, Sustainable Management of Food – Sustainable Management of Food (SMF) is a systematic approach that seeks to reduce wasted food and its associated environmental impacts over the entire life cycle. Reducing wasted food can save resources and money, help people, reduce landfill methane and return nutrients to the soil.
- Food Waste Research webpage – EPA provides several reports and links to other sources related to food waste research including environmental impacts and emerging issues.
Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), North American Initiatives on Food and Organic Waste – The CEC seeks to reduce food loss and waste in North America through research and information sharing. The organization’s website offers reports and case studies on this topic, as well as a list of other organizations working in this space.
ReFED – This nonprofit organization created to reduce U.S. food waste has several tools such as the U.S. Food Waste Policy Finder and Solution Provider Directory and a roadmap for reducing U.S. food waste by 50 percent by year 2030.