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As industries continue to move toward a circular economy, embracing innovative solutions that help reduce reliance on landfills will be key to future-proofing operations.
By Brett Stevens

As businesses face increasing pressure from regulators, investors, and consumers to take responsibility for the downstream effects of their waste, many are beginning to recognize the need for more sustainable waste management practices. Business owners may intuitively know that landfill diversion is a good thing, but few know just how impactful it really is. New research is demonstrating that landfilling, the most common waste disposal method, has more severe environmental consequences than previously understood. The innovative and sustainable waste solutions available today also present an opportunity to not just divert waste from landfills, but to reimagine waste as a resource rather than a liability.

This article provides a deep dive into the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) waste management hierarchy and explores modern strategies that can help businesses reduce their environmental footprint and make meaningful progress toward zero-waste-to-landfill goals.

Understanding the Waste Hierarchy
The EPA’s waste hierarchy serves as a guide for businesses to handle their waste responsibly, with four tiers—Source Reduction & Reuse, Recycling/Composting, Energy Recovery, and Treatment & Disposal—offering a blueprint for minimizing the volume of waste, reducing reliance on landfilling, and maximizing resource recovery. Understanding the EPA’s waste hierarchy can help businesses identify areas for improvement for all their waste streams.

Businesses reliant on landfilling that are looking to make strides toward their sustainability goals can set their sights on ascending to the next level of the waste hierarchy. By moving toward more sustainable practices such as recycling, composting, or energy recovery, they can reduce their dependence on landfills, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and potentially increase the amount of resources we can recapture.

The Importance of Landfill Avoidance as a Business Strategy
While landfilling is historically the most common and cost-effective method of waste disposal, its hidden costs—both financial and environmental—are becoming increasingly clear. Landfilling sits at the bottom of the EPA’s waste hierarchy and is the third-largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions in the U.S. Most of what we know about landfill methane emissions, a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than CO2, is based on modeled estimates. Studies using aircraft and satellite technology have just recently made full landfill emissions measurement possible. Data from recent studies, including a paper administered by NASA and published in Science, indicate landfill emissions are currently underestimated.1,2,3,4,5 A recent UNEP report underscores this finding, which states landfill methane emissions are likely underreported by a factor of two to three times.6

For businesses focused on reducing their environmental impact, avoiding landfills is crucial. Beyond the environmental implications, landfilling carries ongoing financial liabilities and long-term responsibility for the waste, even after disposal. Other risks include groundwater contamination and potential public backlash if landfills negatively impact nearby communities. These impacts can involve the release of harmful pollutants, leachate leakage, foul odors, and health concerns tied to poor air and water quality.

Moreover, regulatory measures like state-administered Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws require manufacturers to take responsibility for the end-of-life management of their products. Avoiding landfills is the first step towards meeting EPR laws and helps companies avoid regulatory penalties.

Leveraging Decarbonizing Waste Solutions
Tackling decarbonization goals requires a multifaceted approach, including solutions to recover resources—such as metals and energy—from waste, and reintegrating them back into the economy. Zero-waste-to-landfill solutions can divert entire waste streams away from landfills and support a company’s broader sustainability objectives.

Material Processing Facilities (MPFs) play a key role in this effort by sorting and processing waste, while Thermomechanical Treatment Facilities (TTFs) offer even greater potential. TTFs are 10x more effective than wind and solar at reducing greenhouse gas emissions when accounting for the benefits of landfill methane avoidance.

Partnering for Success
In today’s evolving regulatory landscape, businesses must prioritize sustainable waste management practices that go beyond simply meeting compliance. A proactive approach to waste reduction, resource recovery, and landfill avoidance not only supports environmental stewardship, but also mitigates long-term financial and operational risks. To effectively manage waste and maximize resource recovery, many businesses turn to a trusted third-party partner. Seeking a partner that can deliver end-to-end solutions is ideal, as it can streamline execution across your business and provide standardized reporting across waste streams.

As industries continue to move toward a circular economy, embracing innovative solutions that help reduce reliance on landfills will be key to future-proofing operations. The potential to decarbonize waste streams and recapture valuable resources offers businesses an opportunity to both drive sustainability and improve bottom-line performance. | WA

Brett Stevens is the Senior Director of the Third-Party Solutions Group, the subcontracting arm of Reworld™ (formerly Covanta). As waste generators are looking for better end-use disposal methods than landfill, Brett and his team manage a vast network of depackaging facilities, recyclers, composters, anaerobic digesters, hazardous waste TSDFs, and more who treat customers’ waste on behalf of Reworld™. Stevens has 15 years of experience in the environmental services industry, including a 12-year stint at TerraCycle prior to joining Covanta (now Reworld™) in early 2022. For more information, visit .

Resource
www.epa.gov/lmop/basic-information-about-landfill-gas.

Notes
Wecht et al. (2014) Spatially resolving methane emissions in California: constraints from the CalNex aircraft campaign and from present (GOSAT, TES) and future (TROPOMI, geostationary) satellite observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys. 14, 8173-8184. URL: www.atmos-chem-phys.net/14/8173/2014/acp-14-8173-2014.pdf
Ren et al. (2018) Methane Emissions From the Baltimore-Washington Area Based on Airborne Observations: Comparison to Emissions Inventories, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 123, 8869–8882. URL: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2018JD028851
Cusworth, D. et al. (2024) Quantifying methane emissions from United States Landfills. Science, 383, 1499–1504
Nesser, H. et al. (2024) High Resolution US methane emissions inferred from an inversion of 2019 TROPOMI satellite data: contributions from individual states, urban areas and landfills. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5069-5091
Jeong, S., et al. (2017) Estimating ethane emissions from biological and fossil-fuel sources in the San Francisco Bay Area, Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, 486–495. URL: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2016GL071794
United Nations Environment Programme and Climate and Clean Air Coalition (2021) Global Methane Assessment: Benefits and Costs of Mitigating Methane Emissions, Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme. URL:
www.unep.org/resources/report/global-methane-assessment-benefits-and-costs-mitigating-methane-emissions