Landfills

Detecting Persistent Emission Sources

Accurate Facility-Level Methane Monitoring for Landfills & Waste Sites

Landfills emit methane by nature. As organic waste breaks down, methane is produced continuously across cover areas, active cells, and gas collection infrastructure, and its behaviour changes with weather, waste composition, and operational activity. Methane has a global warming potential around 84 times greater than CO₂ over 20 years, making landfill emissions one of the most impactful and most actionable sources of near-term climate warming.

GHGSat provides the independent, measurement-based emissions data waste operators, regulators, and investors need to understand what is actually happening across their sites, optimize gas capture performance, and demonstrate responsible operations with confidence.

Landfill Methane Monitoring Challenge

Detecting Persistent Landfill Methane Emissions at Scale

Landfill methane management is operationally complex. Emission sources shift constantly across cover areas, active cells, legacy zones, and gas collection infrastructure as waste composition, weather, and site activity change.

Field surveys are resource-intensive and point-in-time by the time a survey is complete, the emissions picture has already changed. Gas collection systems are difficult to optimize without knowing where losses are actually occurring, and plumes can travel beyond site boundaries, creating community exposure and regulatory considerations operators benefit from understanding in advance.

Inventory estimates add another layer of complexity. Most landfill emissions figures are based on decay models designed for annual reporting rather than direct measurement. Satellite observations show that actual site-level emissions can differ significantly from modelled values in either direction depending on site conditions, waste composition, and collection system performance. As regulators and investors increasingly seek measurement-based data, operators who can demonstrate direct monitoring have a clearer and more defensible picture of their site performance.

Landfill Methane Monitoring Solution

Satellite and Airborne Methane Monitoring Across Waste Management Operations

Detect: Wide-area satellite data provides visibility of large methane emission events at landfills and dumpsites globally, identifying sites and regions requiring closer investigation.

Monitor: Persistent, facility-level satellite monitoring with daily revisits captures the dynamic nature of landfill emissions that single surveys cannot represent without site access or overflight permissions required.

Diagnose: High-resolution airborne methane monitoring at sub-meter spatial resolution attributes emissions to specific zones, cover areas, wells, or infrastructure within the landfill perimeter.

Verify: After gas collection improvements, cover repairs, or operational changes, repeat measurement confirms whether emissions were reduced, producing a defensible record of mitigation outcomes.

2025 Methane Data

GHGSat Landfill Emissions Monitoring at Scale

202

MtCO₂e Emissions detected from landfills in 2025

1,250

kg/h Average site emission rate for landfills in 2025

69%

Persistence rate across surveyed sites

Asset Coverage

Facility-Level Landfill Methane Monitoring Across Entire Site

Active landfill cells — Cover areas, active tipping faces, and working zones

Legacy areas — Closed cells, capped zones, and decommissioned sites

Gas collection infrastructure — Wellheads, pipelines, flares, and collection system leaks

Dumpsites — Unmanaged and semi-managed waste disposal sites globally

Turning Landfill Methane Data Into Operational & Financial Decisions

Reduce risk & regulatory exposure

Independent, verified emissions data protects operators from regulatory action and community scrutiny, identifying emission sources and providing the evidence to respond when they do.

Optimise gas capture & LFG revenue

Frequent satellite monitoring identifies zones where methane is escaping rather than being captured, pinpointing where gas collection systems require maintenance, adjustment, or expansion.

Replace modeled estimates with direct measurement

Decay models are designed for annual reporting and cannot fully account for site-specific variability, seasonal shifts, or changes in gas collection performance. Independent satellite measurement complements inventory models with direct, verifiable data, giving operators a more complete picture of site behaviour and stronger evidence for reporting and disclosure.

Monitor any site, anywhere, without access constraints

Satellite methane monitoring requires no site access, no ground coordination, and no overflight permissions, delivering independent emissions data for remote, hard-to-access, or internationally distributed landfill portfolios.

Verify mitigation & track improvement over time

Repeat satellite and airborne measurements after operational changes confirm whether emissions were reduced, producing a measurement record suitable for regulatory reporting, investor disclosure, and emissions trading.

Support communities & demonstrate environmental responsibility

Methane plumes from landfills regularly extend beyond site boundaries. Satellite monitoring provides transparent, independently verified evidence of site performance supporting engagement with regulators, communities, and stakeholders.

DATA.SAT

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Satellite Emissions Monitoring

GHGSat’s proprietary satellite constellation delivers independent, high-resolution methane detection at 100 kg/hr, and a 25 m ground sample distance provides continuous, wide-area screening to detect and quantify surface emissions. It also flags priority areas for follow-up.

Best for: Early warning, portfolio prioritization, and regulatory transparency

DATA.AIR

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Airborne Emissions Monitoring

High-resolution airborne methane monitoring at sub-meter spatial resolution, delivering targeted, high-resolution diagnostics to pinpoint emission sources and quantify emission rates to support engineering decisions

Best for: Root-cause analysis, repair prioritization, mitigation verification

DATA.GS

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Third-party Global Survey

Integrates public satellite data from Sentinel-2, Sentinel-5P, Landsat, and EMIT to provide wide-area methane visibility across landfill and waste management asset footprints. Identifies where emissions are occurring at scale, supports benchmarking across landfill portfolios, and helps prioritize sites requiring targeted facility-level monitoring and deeper investigation.

Best for: regional landfill screening, hotspot identification, portfolio benchmarking, and portfolio-level oversight of waste assets

Case Study

Detecting, Mapping, & Verifying Mitigation at a Major Urban Landfill

CASE STUDY | MADRID LANDFILL

GHGSat, in collaboration with SRON, ESA, and the University of Leicester, deployed satellite and airborne monitoring across the Las Dehesas landfill in Madrid in 2025. Combined emissions from two adjacent sites reached 8,800 kg/hr—the highest detected in Europe by GHGSat. Airborne surveys produced sub-meter resolution maps attributing emissions to specific zones. Surveys were repeated after summer repair work to verify the impact of gas collection maintenance and surface management improvements.

Quantifying One of the World’s Largest Landfill Methane Sources

CASE STUDY | JAKARTA, INDONESIA

GHGSat satellites detected methane emissions from the Bantar Gebang landfill in Jakarta—one of the largest landfill sites in the world—at a rate of 15,900 kg/hr. The methane emitted in a single continuous year from this site would be the equivalent of the greenhouse gas output of 750,000 cars driving for a year. The detection provided operators and local authorities with independently verified emissions data for a site that had previously relied on modeled estimates.

Satellite Detection Prompts Government Action on Landfill Methane

CASE STUDY | BANGLADESH

GHGSat satellites detected a significant methane emission event at a major landfill in Bangladesh. The detection prompted local authorities to establish a technical committee to monitor landfill methane emissions activity on-site—a direct regulatory and operational response driven by independent satellite measurement data where no structured monitoring program had previously existed.

Revealing Systematic Underreporting Across South Asian Urban Landfills

CASE STUDY | INDIA AND PAKISTAN

In collaboration with SRON, GHGSat contributed to a global landfill survey published in Science Advances, detecting and characterizing strongly emitting landfills in Delhi, Mumbai, and Lahore. City-level emissions were found to be 1.4 to 2.6 times larger than reported in commonly used inventories, with landfills contributing between 6 and 50% of city-wide methane emissions. The findings demonstrated how satellite monitoring can identify the true scale of landfill emissions in regions where ground-based measurement is limited.

Closing the Data Gap on Landfill Emissions Across the Global South

CASE STUDY | CATF

GHGSat collaborated with the Clean Air Task Force to monitor 13 landfill sites across Africa, including active and decommissioned sites in regions with limited ground-based monitoring infrastructure. Satellite observations detected significant emissions, including up to 2.7 tonnes of CH₄ per hour at a landfill in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, providing operators and local authorities with facility-level data to support mitigation planning where traditional monitoring is impractical.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

How does DATA.AIR support landfill operators in the United States?

DATA.AIR provides high-resolution airborne methane monitoring at sub-metre spatial resolution, detecting and attributing emissions to specific zones, cover areas, wellheads, and collection system components within the landfill perimeter. For North American operators navigating state-level LFG regulations and EPA reporting requirements, DATA.AIR delivers the source-level data needed to direct repair crews precisely, support gas capture optimisation, and produce a defensible measurement record for compliance submissions. It can be deployed on demand or as part of a scheduled monitoring programme, and integrates with existing ground-based LDAR activity to improve both coverage and efficiency.

Does GHGSat satellite methane monitoring support national emissions inventories and NDC reporting?

GHGSat independent satellite emissions data helps countries and municipalities audit their climate impacts and monitor progress against Nationally Determined Contributions. Because satellite measurement is independent of the regulated entity and delivered with documented uncertainty, it provides a credible basis for reconciling reported inventories with observed emissions, supporting the shift from modelled estimates to direct measurement that international climate frameworks increasingly require.

Can GHGSat data be used to support landfill gas recovery business cases?

Yes. Frequent satellite monitoring identifies zones where methane is escaping rather than being captured, providing the facility-level data needed to build a business case for gas collection system investment or expansion. By showing where and how much methane is being lost, operators can quantify the revenue opportunity from Renewable Natural Gas recovery and prioritize infrastructure improvements accordingly.

How does satellite monitoring compare to surface scanning and ground-based methods for landfills?

Surface scanning and ground-based sensors detect methane at fixed points and provide snapshots in time. They cannot capture the full spatial extent of emissions across a large, dynamic site, and they cannot detect plumes that have already dispersed beyond the measurement point. Satellite monitoring provides repeated, wide-area observation of the entire site and surrounding area, capturing emissions that shift with waste activity, weather, and gas collection performance, including plumes that extend beyond the site boundary.

How often are landfill sites monitored and how quickly is data delivered?

DATA.SAT provides daily global coverage with data delivered within 24 hours of observation. The frequency of targeted observations at a specific site depends on the monitoring program and satellite tasking schedule. For sites requiring closer investigation, DATA.AIR airborne campaigns can be deployed on demand, with data delivered within 24 hours of the flight.

Can GHGSat monitor unmanaged dumpsites and landfills in developing countries?

Yes. Satellite monitoring requires no ground access, no local infrastructure, and no overflight permissions, making it equally applicable to unmanaged dumpsites in remote or underserved regions as it is to managed landfills in regulated markets. GHGSat has already monitored landfill sites across Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central America, working with organisations including the Clean Air Task Force and SRON to bring emissions visibility to sites where traditional monitoring is impractical or non-existent

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Start Your Landfill Methane Monitoring Programme

Whether you are managing a single site or a national portfolio, working toward regulatory compliance, or looking to optimize gas capture performance, speak with a GHGSat expert to understand the right satellite and airborne methane monitoring approach for your operations.

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