CARB’s Landfill Methane Rule: A Low-Cost Step Forward for California Residents
California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) is updating its outdated landfill methane rule — a move that will mean cleaner air and healthier neighborhoods across the state. While CARB’s draft rule isn’t perfect, and we encourage all Californians to push for the strongest rule possible, some big waste companies are already starting to claim that it’s just too expensive. We’ve seen this before — waste companies and owners fear-mongering about additional financial burdens on households. But here’s the kicker. Even if landfill operators do need to shift costs onto taxpayers, implementing CARB’s current draft would cost just 31 cents per Californian per year. In other words, better protecting communities from harmful landfill pollution costs less than a single slice of bread.
Cleaner Air for Pennies a Year
CARB’s analysis shows that the proposed landfill methane rule updates would cost about $12.5 million in the first year, and roughly $12.3 million per year afterward, across all California landfills. That adds up to about $0.31 per person, per year — a small price for such a big benefit.
To put that in context, take a look at the cost of some common items below:
For just over a quarter per person each year, California can make sure that families living near landfills breathe cleaner air, that local governments operate on a fair playing field, and that pollution controls keep pace with modern standards.
Protecting California Neighborhoods
Methane leaks from landfills come with more than just odor — they release harmful compounds that worsen local air quality. These communities, often home to working families and people of color, have faced disproportionate exposure for years. For example, Newby Island Landfill, which sits in the heart of the Bay Area’s urban corridor:
More than 230,000 people live within 5 miles
Over 85% of nearby residents are people of color and already face some of the nation’s highest cumulative pollution burdens, compounding the landfill’s health and environmental risks
High-resolution airborne and satellite imaging by Carbon Mapper has repeatedly detected huge plumes of methane at Newby Island Landfill: 251 methane plumes were observed across 32 unique days of measurement between June 2017 and April 2025.
Stronger regulations for California landfills will help change that by strengthening monitoring and tightens gas collection standards.
Source: CARB, ISOR, https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/barcu/regact/2025/LMR/isor.pdf page 128.
A Fair Deal for Everyone
Stronger standards aren’t just affordable — they’re fair. With total private landfill revenues around $1 billion per year, the updated rule’s cost amounts to a fraction of a penny on every dollar earned for the big waste operators. And government owned landfills have much less ongoing costs than private landfills, just in the five-figures.
For the cost of a slice of bread per year, California can deliver cleaner air, healthier neighborhoods, and greater environmental fairness.
The LMR offers California a renewed opportunity to demonstrate leadership in climate action and in protecting communities, marking important progress toward improving accountability and monitoring of landfill emissions. While this a big step forward for regulations that haven’t been updated in 15 years, many advocates and community members want additional measures to ensure genuine emissions reductions and transparent oversight across all landfills. These include improvements to surface emissions monitoring, data transparency, and stronger thresholds that would signal problems earlier, allowing operators to get ahead of issues.
