Briefing: GHG emissions reduced by managing landfill gas

In March 2009 one of Africa’s busiest landfill sites, the Bisasar Road facility in Durban, South Africa (Figure 1), was formally registered by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) under the clean development mechanism (CDM) (UNFCCC, 2009). The CDM allows developing countries to benefit from reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through generation of certified emission reduction (CER) credits for the quantity of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions that are prevented.

At the Bisasar Road site, GHG emissions are reduced by the operation of an active gas extraction system. This directs collected landfill gas to...