Hyderabad landfill emerges as major methane emitter, satellite data shows
HYDERABAD: The Jawaharnagar landfill in Hyderabad is among the world’s largest methane-emitting waste sites, according to an analysis by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) using Carbon Mapper satellite data.
The site was estimated to emit about 5.9 tonnes of methane an hour, placing it among the biggest landfill methane emitters globally. The findings highlight the continuing challenge of managing organic waste despite Hyderabad’s large waste-to-energy infrastructure.
UCLA’s analysis, published in April 2026, examined Carbon Mapper data from satellite instruments and ranked 25 waste facilities with the highest detected and quantified methane emission rates in 2025. Carbon Mapper’s data draws on observations from Planet Labs’ Tanager-1 satellite and NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instrument aboard the International Space Station.
Re Sustainability operates waste-to-energy facilities at Jawaharnagar. The company says its Hyderabad facilities have 48 MW of waste-to-energy capacity and use refuse-derived fuel for power generation.
The methane findings point to the persistence of emissions from waste remaining at the landfill. Methane is produced when organic waste decomposes under oxygen-free conditions. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has described methane from the waste sector as a significant contributor to human-caused methane emissions and has supported the use of remote sensing to identify high-emitting waste sites.
The findings also raise questions about the limits of relying on waste-to-energy facilities as a standalone solution for municipal solid waste. Re Sustainability says its plants divert waste from landfills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by processing waste into energy.
Carbon Mapper and NASA-linked satellite technology have made it possible to identify methane plumes from individual waste facilities. Tanager-1 carries an imaging spectrometer based on technology developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and can detect methane and carbon dioxide emissions at facility level.
The UCLA analysis cautions that satellite observations do not capture every emission event because sites differ in how frequently they are observed. Its 2025 ranking included landfills that had been observed on at least two days and had at least two quantified emissions observations.
