00:00This landfill in Chile is one of the world's largest sources of climate-warming methane gas.
00:08That's according to a recent UN Environment Agency study, which estimated the trash heap
00:14produces emissions equivalent to those from nearly 2 million cars driven annually.
00:19The pyramid-shaped Lomos Los Colorados landfill sits on the outskirts of the capital, Santiago,
00:25and receives waste from homes across an area of more than 7 million people.
00:32Mauricio Fabri, the Santiago government's head of regional planning and development,
00:37says most of the waste here is organic, which is what produces methane gas,
00:42a molecule that's more powerful than carbon dioxide entrapping heat,
00:46meaning it takes fewer of them to cause the same amount of warming.
00:50The UN study estimated that the trash collected here produces more than 100,000 metric tons of methane each year.
00:58That's almost 20,000 tons more than the second site on the UN's list, an oil and gas facility in
01:04Turkmenistan.
01:06But management company KDM Imprezas faulted the UN's analysis and said that since 2007,
01:13the landfill has helped fuel a nearby power station that is part of a program to turn captured methane into
01:19biogas.
01:2070-year-old Patricio Salgado lives near the landfill.
01:24He says the waste attracts flies and stirs up foul odors.
01:31Living next to this landfill has meant that they've been making our lives miserable 24 hours a day.
01:37We can't do anything, absolutely nothing.
01:40Marcelo Mena, a professor at the Catholic University of Valparaiso's chemistry and engineering school,
01:46says separating organic waste can help reduce the odor.
01:51If we can remove the source of the odor from organic waste and work towards anaerobic digestion or composting,
01:57that is what we need to start accelerating.
02:00You
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