For decades, waste companies have generated electricity by collecting and processing landfill gas, turning regulatory requirements into an opportunity to spin a profit. But as North America’s energy policy has shifted, using landfill gas to generate pipeline-quality renewable natural gas has become a lucrative venture.
Today, all of the major public and private waste companies operating in the U.S. and Canada have announced or already completed RNG projects at their landfills. Those facilities join a rapidly growing sector that’s also producing RNG from food waste, dairy farm manure and wastewater treatment.