The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) is helping to reduce and prevent greenhouse gas emissions from municipal solid waste. Around the world, waste in landfills is the third largest source of anthropogenic methane – a greenhouse gas that is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. CCI works with cities around the world – including Delhi, Houston, Cairo, and Mexico City – to reduce reliance on landfills through recycling, composting, and the capture and use of methane to generate power, minimizing risks to human health and the climate.
The city of Delhi has started construction on a groundbreaking project that will transform the way it deals with its waste. The project marks the first integrated solid waste management system in India, covering door-to-door collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal of waste. Once complete, it will solve a growing sanitation problem and prevent the release of 96,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) into the atmosphere each year. In many developing countries, dumping garbage is commonplace, and systems to collect and manage garbage are scarce, leaving 2.6 billion people susceptible to health risks and related economic losses. Delhi’s new system will process 1,000 tons of waste a day, converting organic waste into compost and recycling plastics and paper to create a refuse-derived fuel product.
In Houston, Texas, CCI is working on a model program for the commercial sector to reduce disposal of organic waste at landfills through composting. The effort started small – just one company sending food scraps to a local composting facility, Nature’s Way Resources. This year, leading grocers, including Walmart, are composting 12,000 tons of food waste from 40 Houston stores. The grocers are enthusiastic about the environmental benefits of composting food scraps, which make up over 50 percent of what they discard on a daily basis. CCI aims to increase the number of composting sites and grant access to a broader scope of businesses; and Walmart is preparing to roll out the program to its stores across the state.
