Methane emissions from landfills in Serbia and potential mitigation strategies: a case study

Abstract

Open dumping and landfilling have represented the predominant method of waste management in Serbia during the past decades. This practice resulted in over 3600 waste disposal sites distributed all over the country. The locations of the sites and their characteristics have been determined in the framework of the presented study. The vast majority of disposal sites (up to 3300) are characterized by small deposition depth of waste and total waste volumes of less than 10,000 m(3). Only about 50 landfills in Serbia contain more than 100,000 m(3) of waste. These large landfills are responsible for more than 95% of the total CH(4) emissions from waste disposal, which was assessed as 60,000 tons of CH(4) in 2010. The evaluation of different measures [soil cover, compost cover and landfill gas (LFG) systems] for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from Serbian landfills indicated that enhanced microbial CH(4) oxidation (using a compost cover), as well as the installation of LFG systems, could generate net revenues as saved CH(4) emissions are creditable for the European Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme. In total between 4 and 7 million tons of CO(2) equivalent emissions could be avoided within the next 20 years by mitigating CH(4) emissions from Serbian landfills.

Introductory Chapter: Rural Waste Management Issues at Global Level

“…Despite the fact that these sites are smaller than formal urban landills and scatered across peri-urban and rural regions, they are still a signiicant pollution source. Wild dumps must be mapped at municipal level across all regions in order to assess their environmental impact [3,4]. Monitoring of illegal dumping activities is crucial either in high-income countries afecting public lands, roadsides, or water bodies [5][6][7].…”

Framework of new landfill GHG policy in developing countries: Case study of Serbia

“…Disposal sites with an average height above 5 m provide anaerobic conditions in which generation of landfill gas with a high methane content is favored. Most of the existing dumpsites in Serbia can be classified as shallow disposal sites . Abushammala et al .…”

“…Most of the existing dumpsites in Serbia can be classified as shallow disposal sites. 12 Abushammala et al showed that, on average, measured CH 4 emissions from sanitary landfills are higher than the emissions measured at the dumpsites. 13 The current situation is characterized by a large number of LFG emission points with low CH 4 content.…”

Application of a Life Cycle Model for European Union Policy‐Driven Waste Management Decision Making in Emerging Economies

“…; Stanisavljevic et al. ). Brunner and Fellner () estimated that affluent countries spend approximately 0.4% of their gross domestic products (GDPs) on SWM.…”

“…infrastructure or a tradition of sustainable SWM practices (Diaz and Otoma 2012;Karagiannidis et al 2009;Sintana et al 2015;Stanisavljevic et al 2012). Brunner and Fellner (2007) estimated that affluent countries spend approximately 0.4% of their gross domestic products (GDPs) on SWM.…”