Compost reduces landfill gas

Mountains of decomposing garbage release about 10 million metric tons of methane each year in the United States alone. To reduce gas from landfills, communities should start treating them more like backyard gardens, a report in an upcoming Environmental Science & Technology suggests.

In field tests at a landfill in Louisville, Ky., Morton A. Barlaz of North Carolina State University in Raleigh and his colleagues tried a new twist on the practice of covering garbage with soil.