What has been successful in my city, Portland, is separating the food and yard waste. The food and yard wastes are composted. Composting produces methane, but there is a trial to capture the methane which is burned as natural gas.
Capturing methane from compost should be easier than whole landfill. It also keeps the organics instead of losing them.
A wrinkle I read somewhere - organics in traditional landfills kept toxic materials like heavy metals "locked up", less risk of such stuff leeching out in the ground water.
Capturing methane from compost should be easier than whole landfill. It also keeps the organics instead of losing them.