Читать книгу Circular Economy For Dummies - Eric Corey Freed - Страница 51

Americans generate an average of 4.6 pounds of trash daily per person. Modern landfills have evolved into elaborate material-recovery facilities, where they sort through the waste stream and pull out valuable resources that were thrown away by mistake. Despite these advancements, the environmental and economic impact of landfills is immense.

Municipal landfills are the third-largest source of human-caused methane emissions in the United States, accounting for approximately 16 percent of total emissions and 91 percent of all methane emissions. (Methane is an even worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, with 84 times the potency.)