DNRP > SWD > About SWD > Environmental Programs > Climate Change > Climate change and organics recycling

Climate change and organics recycling

Recycling and composting organic materials such as food scraps and food soiled paper, wood and yard waste reduces greenhouse gases emissions, providing climate and other environmental benefits.

In landfills, organic materials decompose without oxygen and create methane, a major contributor to climate change. King County’s Cedar Hills Regional Landfill uses a state-of-the-art methane capture system to convert methane into pipeline quality natural gas that can be used for energy. However, by preventing organic materials from reaching the landfill and recycling them instead, methane generation is avoided all together. Additionally, by composting materials, there are significant reductions in energy and greenhouse gas emissions associated with making fertilizers and pesticides, as well as soil carbon sequestration (storage) benefits that are described below.

Climate change impacts of landfilling organic materials

Click on the icons in the figure below to learn more about each stage.

Composting organic materials like food scraps, yard waste, soiled paper and manure releases some carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but has a less adverse impact on the environment compared to methane, which has 23 times more the global warming potential than carbon dioxide.  Greenhouse gas emissions are reduced when organic materials are recycled into compost or other soil amendments and applied to the soil in our gardens, landscapes or farms. The biological carbon from the organic materials that are used to make compost or other soil amendments can remain sequestered, or stored, in soils for long periods of time, effectively storing carbon that could otherwise be released into the atmosphere as CO2.   Compost or other soil amendments can also enhance plant and tree growth – and when plants grow they take more CO2 out of the atmosphere – effectively counteracting some of the human releases of CO2 from activities like burning gasoline to drive cars.

In addition, using compost in our yards and gardens can reduce use of petroleum based fertilizers or pesticides. Producing these products is energy intensive and can create significant greenhouse gas emissions, which can be avoided with compost use.

Climate change impacts of composting organic materials

Click on the icons in the figure below to learn more about each stage.

top of page