As a mom and as a clinical pharmacist living in Florida, I’m deeply concerned about climate change and public health. When picturing the major drivers of global warming, the local landfill probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind — but did you know that the country’s more than 2,600 municipal solid waste landfills are actually huge contributors to climate change? 

When food waste or other organic material ends up in a landfill, it creates methane, a highly polluting greenhouse gas that’s fueling climate change every day. Municipal solid waste landfills were the largest industrial source of methane emissions in 38 states in 2022, including my home state of Florida. Estimates show that methane from landfills has about the same planet-warming impact as running an unbelievable 74 coal-fired power plants every year. As we continue to experience record-breaking heat, extreme weather, and droughts, we simply cannot afford to continue to emit so much heat-trapping methane from our landfills. 

Methane isn’t the only pollutant coming from landfills. They also emit hazardous air and water pollutants like leachate, benzene, toluene, and hydrogen sulfide that directly impact the health of nearby communities. As a healthcare professional, I unfortunately have a front-row seat to the very real health harms exacerbated by climate pollution.

While we all have a role to play in reducing the amount of organic waste we throw away, this isn’t a problem we can solve alone. That’s why I’m asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strengthen Clean Air Act regulations for landfills. 

EPA mandates how landfill operators monitor, capture, and control methane emissions — and right now, those standards are shockingly low, allowing unchecked levels of methane and other pollutants to spew into the air we breathe. EPA’s landfill regulations haven’t been updated since 2016, and are long overdue for common-sense improvements. With the stroke of a pen, EPA Administrator Regan can: 

• Embrace available technology to find methane emissions, rather than relying on ineffective and outdated manual monitoring.
• Require landfills operators to use cover materials that minimize air pollution.
• Ensure that more landfill gas is captured before being released into the atmosphere.
• Ensure that landfills capable of capturing landfill gas are capturing that gas throughout the landfill.
• Beyond updating these regulations, the EPA can fund alternatives to landfills and trash incinerators – like food rescue and composting. 

These rule updates might be simple, but their impact would be enormous. Stronger landfill regulations can slash planet-warming emissions and protect our children and communities from toxic pollution. Please add your name to tell EPA that landfill emissions need to be a top priority.