Solid waste disposal sites are among the largest sources of methane emissions driving global warming. The upcoming United Nations climate conference (COP31) to be held in the Republic of Türkiye provides a critical opportunity to address these global emissions. Thanks partly to Turkey’s leadership, the Action Agenda for COP31 names “Zero Waste and Methane Reduction” as the first of 10 priorities for the summit.  

This list spotlights the 10 sites in Turkey’s waste sector with the highest average methane emission rates as seen by a key satellite. These insights come from public data published by the independent nonprofit Carbon Mapper, leveraging Planet Labs’ Tanager-1 satellite. We compiled this list of emitters by identifying the sites with the highest average emissions rates where at least two plumes were observed and quantified during a study period, which ran from January 1, 2025, to June 1, 2026.   

These 10 waste sites, which include landfills and dumpsites, are linked to 70 plumes observed by the Tanager satellite. While many landfills emit only a few dozen kilograms of methane per hour, those on this list emitted much more – with average emission rates ranging from 841 kg per hour to about 7.4 tonnes of methane per hour. (For reference, that is just shy of the 7.6 tonnes/hour average emission rate observed for the #1 landfill on our global Top 25 in 2025 list.) Three of these Turkey sites are located near the country’s largest city (Istanbul), while others are located near the capital (Ankara) and coastal tourism destinations (Antalya, where COP31 will be held).  

Many of these sites are landfills with gas capture systems and biogas energy production facilities. Management approaches to prevent such super-sized emission events will vary from site to site but begin with identifying some of the largest opportunities for mitigation.  Our goal with publishing this list ahead of COP31 is to make these emissions visible and to help operators, regulators, and the public focus on the sites where action can deliver the greatest near-term climate benefit. 

For each source on our lists, we name a “potentially responsible operator” if we have enough information to do so with good confidence. This information comes from research by our team at the UCLA Emmett Institute, based on a holistic review of public information. These potentially responsible operators range from municipal governments and their subsidiaries to a privately-held waste management and landfill-gas energy company. 

You can learn more about our global list for the waste sector and about our methodology for site attribution by reading our list of Top 25 landfills globally in the year 2025. We welcome feedback on our methodology, including alerts if anything about our lists does not look correct. You can reach us here.       

Top photo by Yaren Kılıç on Unsplash