CNN —Garbage piling up in landfills isn’t just an eyesore, it’s also a climate nightmare, belching out large amounts of planet-warming methane gas. Their results revealed average methane emissions were much higher than those officially reported, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Science. Landfills tend to be a less well-known methane source, but they also have a huge impact, estimated at around 20% of global human-caused methane emissions. Most landfills in the US are federally required to measure methane emissions four times a year through walking surveys using handheld sensors. Average methane emission rates from landfills were 1.4 times higher than those being reported to the GHGRP, the report found.

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Persons: it’s, Daniel Cusworth, Wolfgang Kaehler, ” Cusworth, Rob Jackson, ”, “ Organizations: CNN, ., Reporting, Cedar, Stanford University, ” Locations: United States, King, Maple Valley , Washington