While the concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by nearly twice since the beginning of the industrial revolution in the mid-18th century, the amount of methane in the atmosphere has increased by nearly twice that amount in the same time period.

This is a problem for the atmosphere, since this particular greenhouse gas just happens to be many times more efficient at trapping the sun’s long-wave radiation that’s responsible for planetary warming.

Landfills are just one service way that excess planetary methane is created. Though significant amounts are also caused by all the collected flatus of cows and volcanoes, landfill-generated methane is extremely powerful. It is, in fact, over 70 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It is expected that methane released today will still be detectable in the atmosphere a century in the future.