Skip to content

Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020

Are landfills responsible for most US methane emissions?

Samuel Henning, Gigafact
no

The Environmental Protection Agency says landfills were responsible for 17% of U.S. methane emissions in 2018, behind oil and gas emissions (28%) and agriculture (40%). Cattle and other ruminant mammals contribute both through the gas that is a byproduct of their digestive systems and related "manure management," the EPA says.

Over a 100-year period, methane packs 25 times the relative impact of carbon dioxide, making it an important greenhouse gas to monitor for its impact on climate. Globally, cattle are responsible for 75% of animal methane emissions, with other ruminants such as sheep and goals also a factor.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

Learn More

Latest Fact Briefs

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.