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In the United States , approximately 4 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent (almost 9,000 pounds) per person per year (about 17% of total U.S. emissions) are emitted from people's homes. The three main sources of greenhouse gas emissions from homes are electricity use, heating and waste. Emissions from electricity generation occur at the power plants that supply your electricity. In the U.S. , greenhouse gas emissions associated with home electricity use are about twice those associated with heating. The greenhouse gases associated with waste from your home occur at the landfill that receives your garbage.
Electricity UseHome owners use electricity for lighting, operating appliances, producing hot water and in some cases heating and cooling. When coal and other fossil fuels are burned to create electricity, greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere. The average household CO2 emissions from electricity are approximately 7.4 metric tons per year (about 16,290 lbs). Different power plants use different types of fuel, and a power plant that runs on coal emits more greenhouse gases per unit of electricity than a power plant that uses natural gas.
Home Heating
During the winter, many people rely upon furnaces or boilers to heat their homes. Most furnaces and boilers burn fossil fuels such as heating oil or natural gas, which emit greenhouse gases. The amount of emissions can vary by fuel, furnace or boiler efficiency and by the temperature setting in the home.
Waste
Most people don’t realize that the trash they throw away leads to emissions of greenhouse gases. Each pound of trash you throw away will emit approximately 0.94 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent in the form of methane, and the average person in the U.S. throws away over 1,130 pounds of waste per year. For every person in the U.S., about 1,060 pounds of CO2 equivalent comes from the garbage we throw out every year.
The goods we throw away require energy to create and by recycling some of those goods you can save energy and minimize emissions. In most cases it takes more energy to create a new product than it takes to produce something from a recycled good. By recycling more we can minimize the waste we send to landfills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The average recycling rate for the United States is 30.6%. If the recycling rate increased to 35%, greenhouse gas emissions from waste could be reduced by 67 pounds of CO2 equivalent per person.
As trash decomposes in landfills, it produces landfill gas (LFG), which consists of about 50% methane, the primary component of natural gas, and about 50% CO2. LFG is produced during the natural process of bacterial decomposition of organic material (like leftover food, paper, and grass clippings) contained in municipal solid waste landfills.
Landfill gas can be an asset when it is used as a source of energy to create electricity or heat. By using LFG to produce energy, landfills can significantly reduce their emissions of methane and local air pollution, and avoid the need to generate energy from fossil fuels. More than 365 landfills in the U.S. recover the methane from their landfills and use it to produce electricity or heat. These projects help businesses and communities protect the environment and build a sustainable future. EPA's Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) is a voluntary assistance and partnership program that promotes the use of landfill gas as a renewable, green energy source.
To learn more about the relationship between greenhouse gases and waste, visit the Waste section of the What You Can Do section of this Web site.
For more information on actions you can take to reduce your emissions at home, explore the "What You Can Do" section of this Web site.