Money For Old Rope – An Anaerobic Digestion Article With Historic Significance
2026 update: This page has an unusual purpose. It was originally created to preserve access to information cited by Wikipedia after the original source became difficult to access. The historical material has therefore been deliberately retained, while the surrounding commentary has been updated to reflect current understanding of landfill methane, organic-waste diversion and anaerobic digestion.
Introduction
“Money for old rope?” is an historically interesting article about landfill carbon, methane generation and the biodegradation of organic waste. An archived version was captured by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine on 16 December 2008.
The article was written by five US authors — Morton Barlaz, Amy Banister, Gary Hater, Jeffrey Chanton and Roger Green — three of whom were university professors at the time.
The original article, approximately 2,400 words long, is particularly interesting today because it captures the way landfill methane, carbon sequestration and organic-waste management were being discussed during a period when anaerobic digestion was beginning to emerge much more strongly as a competing treatment route for biodegradable wastes.
This page remains linked from the English-language Wikipedia article on anaerobic digestion as a source associated with its discussion of the biodegradable components of organic waste.
That makes preserving the historical context and the cited technical passage particularly important.
Key Takeaways
- This page exists primarily as a historical and reference resource. It should not be read as a current guide to landfill or anaerobic digestion policy.
- The original article examined biodegradable carbon, methane generation, landfill gas recovery and carbon sequestration in landfill.
- The technical passage cited by Wikipedia concerns the biodegradation of cellulose and hemicellulose under anaerobic conditions.
- Since 2008, policy has moved much further toward diverting biodegradable waste away from landfill, particularly in Europe.
- Modern waste policy increasingly recognises the importance of avoiding uncontrolled methane generation, recycling organic material and recovering energy and nutrients through processes such as anaerobic digestion.
- The historical article remains useful because it captures an important earlier stage in the debate over landfill methane, carbon accounting and alternative organic-waste treatment.
Why This 2008 Article Still Matters in 2026
Much has changed since the original article was written.
In 2008, discussion of biodegradable municipal waste often centred on what happened after organic carbon had already entered a landfill: how rapidly it degraded, how much methane was generated, how much landfill gas could be captured and how much carbon remained stored within the landfill.
Those questions are still scientifically important.
However, the policy emphasis has increasingly moved further up the waste hierarchy.
Today, a much more fundamental question is:
Why place biodegradable material in landfill in the first place if it can instead be separately collected, recycled and treated by processes such as composting or anaerobic digestion?
The European Commission continues to identify methane generation from biodegradable material in landfill as a major environmental concern. EU landfill policy requires Member States to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste being landfilled and explicitly recognises options including recycling, composting, biogas production and materials or energy recovery.
See: European Commission – Landfill Waste.
This means that the original article now has value for two reasons.
First, its discussion of anaerobic biodegradation and methane formation remains technically relevant.
Second, it provides a useful historical snapshot of how carbon management was viewed before the large-scale expansion of modern food-waste AD, biomethane production, separate organic-waste collection and today’s much stronger focus on methane emissions.
Why This Page Was Created
We originally created this review and update page because the source being cited from Wikipedia had become difficult to access reliably at its original location.
The intention was not to republish the complete original article.
Instead, this page:
- identifies the original work and its authors;
- preserves the context of the Wikipedia citation;
- includes the portion of the material pertinent to that citation;
- provides access to an archived copy of the original article; and
- adds historical commentary explaining how the waste-management context has subsequently changed.
For copyright reasons, the complete original article is not reproduced here.
The Passage Cited in Connection With Wikipedia
The following extract was included on this page because it explains the biodegradable components of waste and the simplified chemistry of their decomposition under anaerobic conditions.
To understand biodegradation, it is useful to think about the biodegradable fraction of waste. Cellulose [(C6H10O5)n] and hemicellulose [(C5H8O4)n] are the major biodegradable components of waste; the other major organic component, lignin (a structural component of wood) is largely not degradable under typical landfill conditions.
Residential waste contains 40-50% cellulose, 7-10% hemicellulose and 10-20% lignin. The cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin contents of various types of paper, food waste and yard waste …
Under anaerobic conditions, the decomposition of cellulose and hemicellulose can be described by equations (2) and (3):
(C6H10O5)n + nH2O → 3nCO2 + 3nCH4
(C5H8O4)n + nH2O → 2.5nCO2 + 2.5nCH4
Equations (2) and (3) are simplifications of a complex series of reactions involving communities of microorganisms.
That final sentence remains particularly important. Neither landfill methane generation nor engineered anaerobic digestion should be understood as a single chemical conversion. They involve complex interacting microbial communities and multiple biological stages.
In engineered anaerobic digestion these are commonly described as hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis.
Historical Context: AD and Landfill in 2008
By 2008, anaerobic digestion was becoming increasingly recognised as a practical renewable-energy and organic-waste treatment technology.
At the same time, landfill remained a major destination for municipal and commercial biodegradable waste in many countries.
The debate therefore frequently concerned two very different approaches to biodegradable carbon:
- place organic material in landfill, where part of it decomposes anaerobically and generates methane, potentially allowing landfill-gas recovery; or
- divert suitable organic material to a controlled biological treatment process, such as anaerobic digestion, where methane is deliberately generated, contained and used.
Over the years that followed, policy in Europe moved increasingly toward the second approach for suitable separately collected organic wastes.
Food-waste collection, landfill diversion, recycling targets and the expansion of AD capacity have changed the context substantially.
What the Original “Money for Old Rope?” Article Covered
The original article was sub-headed “Tracking the carbon in landfill management”.
Its principal sections included:
- Trends in landfilling
- The biodegradation process
- The carbon cycle and climate change
- I’m concerned about climate change. Is waste decomposition in a landfill good?
- What is the relationship between carbon sequestration and landfill gas?
- Carbon sequestration and the drivers to measure carbon
The authors examined the argument that landfill can act partly as a carbon-storage or sequestration system because not all biodegradable carbon placed in a landfill ultimately decomposes.
At the same time, the decomposable fraction can produce methane.
That creates the central difficulty: methane is a valuable energy-bearing gas when captured, but a powerful greenhouse gas when released uncontrolled to the atmosphere.
The original article therefore placed considerable emphasis on landfill-gas capture, carbon accounting and the quality of the available data.
Landfill Carbon Sequestration: An Important but Contested Perspective
The argument that landfill can store some carbon has not disappeared scientifically.
Materials such as lignin and other slowly degradable organic fractions can remain within a landfill for long periods.
However, carbon sequestration cannot be considered independently of methane generation and capture efficiency.
If biodegradable carbon generates methane and a significant proportion of that methane escapes to atmosphere, the climate impact can be substantial.
That is one reason modern policy increasingly emphasises:
- reducing biodegradable waste entering landfill;
- improving landfill-gas collection where methane is being generated;
- better methane measurement;
- separate collection of organic waste; and
- controlled treatment such as anaerobic digestion and composting.
Europe: Increasing Diversion of Biodegradable Waste from Landfill
The European approach has developed significantly since this article first appeared.
EU landfill legislation requires Member States to reduce biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill.
The European Commission identifies landfill methane generation as one of the principal environmental threats associated with biodegradable waste disposal.
Under the waste hierarchy, landfill is regarded as the least preferable major waste-management option and should be limited to the necessary minimum.
This has helped create conditions for greater use of:
- separate food-waste collection;
- composting;
- anaerobic digestion and biogas production;
- materials recovery; and
- other forms of resource recovery.
The result is a fundamentally different context from the one in which “Money for Old Rope?” was originally written.
The United States: Landfill Methane Regulation Has Also Developed
The original version of this page described US landfill-methane regulation as only beginning to develop nationally. That statement is now badly dated.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has since implemented and updated a substantial regulatory framework affecting methane-rich landfill-gas emissions.
In 2016, the EPA finalised updated New Source Performance Standards for new, modified and reconstructed municipal solid-waste landfills and separate emission guidelines for existing landfills.
A federal plan implementing those emission guidelines for certain existing municipal solid-waste landfills was finalised in 2021.
Applicable large landfills are also covered by federal greenhouse-gas reporting requirements.
See:
- US EPA – Municipal Solid Waste Landfill New Source Performance Standards and Emission Guidelines
- US EPA – Greenhouse Gas Reporting for Municipal Solid Waste Landfills
The EPA also continues to maintain LandGEM, its landfill-gas emissions model for estimating methane, carbon dioxide and other landfill emissions.
Landfill Gas Recovery Versus Anaerobic Digestion
Landfill-gas recovery and anaerobic digestion both involve methane formed through anaerobic biological decomposition, but they should not be regarded as equivalent processes.
In a landfill:
- the waste body is heterogeneous;
- moisture and temperature conditions vary;
- gas formation may continue over decades;
- gas collection occurs after methane has formed throughout a very large waste mass; and
- complete gas capture is inherently difficult.
In a purpose-built anaerobic digestion plant:
- feedstocks are selected and controlled;
- temperature and loading can be managed;
- the biological process takes place within a contained reactor;
- biogas is deliberately collected from the process; and
- the residual digestate can potentially return nutrients and organic matter to productive use.
Modern AD therefore aims to produce and capture methane intentionally rather than recover it after uncontrolled decomposition has occurred within landfill.
From Landfill Gas to Biomethane
Another major change since 2008 is the development of the modern biomethane industry.
At many contemporary AD plants, biogas is no longer used only to generate electricity in an engine.
Raw biogas can be cleaned and upgraded by removing carbon dioxide and contaminants to produce methane-rich biomethane.
Subject to the applicable gas-quality requirements, biomethane can then be injected into gas networks or used for other applications that would traditionally have depended on fossil natural gas.
This gives modern AD a role encompassing:
- waste recycling;
- renewable gas production;
- methane-emission reduction;
- nutrient recycling;
- fertiliser substitution;
- decarbonisation; and
- energy security.
That wider role was far less developed when the original landfill-carbon article appeared.
Summary Statements From “Money for Old Rope?”
The original article summarised its position by emphasising two linked concepts: capture of landfill methane for energy and recognition of carbon remaining stored within landfill.
The following short extracts were preserved on this page from the original article:
“In summary, landfills generate methane during waste decomposition. This methane can be captured and converted to energy.”
It also argued strongly for better record keeping and carbon accounting at landfill sites.
That emphasis on measurement rather than assumption remains highly relevant.
Indeed, methane measurement has become more important rather than less important as governments and industries attempt to quantify fugitive greenhouse-gas emissions accurately.
A 2026 Perspective
Seen from 2026, the most interesting aspect of “Money for Old Rope?” may be how clearly it captures a transitional period in waste and climate policy.
The article asked how society should account for carbon once biodegradable waste had entered a landfill.
Modern policy increasingly asks an earlier question:
Can that biodegradable material be kept out of landfill altogether and put to a more productive use?
For suitable organic materials, anaerobic digestion offers one answer.
Instead of allowing biodegradable waste to generate methane gradually within a landfill, AD provides a controlled system designed to:
- accelerate biological decomposition;
- capture the resulting biogas;
- use or upgrade the methane;
- recover nutrients within digestate; and
- return appropriate materials to productive use.
At the same time, historic landfills will continue generating methane for many years, making effective landfill-gas collection, accurate emissions measurement and good management of existing sites essential.
The two subjects should therefore not be presented as mutually exclusive.
We need better management of methane from the landfills that already exist while simultaneously reducing the quantity of biodegradable material being sent to landfill in future.
Read the Original Archived Article
The complete original “Money for Old Rope?” article can still be viewed through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine:
Read the archived “Money for Old Rope?” article
This archived link is important because the original Waste Management World URL is no longer a dependable destination for readers following the historical citation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is this old article still on anaerobic-digestion.com?
Because it serves a historical and reference purpose. The page was created to preserve access to information associated with a citation from Wikipedia after the original source became difficult to access reliably.
Is the 2008 article still scientifically relevant?
Parts of it remain relevant, particularly its discussion of anaerobic decomposition, cellulose and hemicellulose degradation, methane formation, landfill-gas recovery and carbon accounting. However, waste policy and methane regulation have developed considerably since it was written.
Does landfill permanently store carbon?
Some organic carbon can remain undegraded within landfill for long periods, particularly in relatively resistant materials. However, the climate implications depend on many factors, including how much biodegradable material decomposes, how much methane is generated and what proportion of that methane is successfully captured.
Is landfill gas the same as biogas from an anaerobic digester?
Both can contain methane produced by anaerobic biological processes, but landfill-gas generation and engineered anaerobic digestion are very different systems. AD takes place within a controlled reactor specifically designed to optimise biological treatment and capture the resulting gas.
Why divert food waste from landfill if landfill gas can be collected?
Landfill-gas collection cannot normally capture every molecule of methane produced within a large and heterogeneous landfill mass. Separately collecting suitable organic wastes and treating them under controlled conditions can also enable energy recovery, nutrient recycling and improved resource use.
Further Reading and Current Sources
- Wikipedia – Anaerobic Digestion
- European Commission – Landfill Waste
- US EPA – Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Emission Standards
- US EPA – Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Greenhouse Gas Reporting
- US EPA – Landfill Gas Emissions Model (LandGEM)
Historical preservation note: This page deliberately retains material from the earlier version because of its longstanding role as a reference destination. The surrounding commentary was substantially updated in September 2026 to distinguish historical statements from the current landfill-methane, organic-waste and anaerobic-digestion context.
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Introduction
Ref 47: Referenced Portion of “Money for old rope?” Article is Copied Below:
To understand biodegradation, it is useful to think about the biodegradable fraction of waste. Cellulose [(C6H10O5)n] and hemicellulose [(C5H8O4)n] are the major biodegradable components of waste; the other major organic component, lignin (a structural component of wood) is largely not degradable under typical landfill conditions.
Residential waste contains 40-50% cellulose, 7-10% hemicellulose and 10-20% lignin. The cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin contents of various types of paper, food waste and yard waste …
Under anaerobic conditions, the decomposition of cellulose and hemicellulose can be described by equations (2) and (3):
(C6H10O5)n + nH2O ’ 3nCO2 + 3nCH4 (2)
(C5H8O4)n + nH2O ’ 2.5nCO2 + 2.5nCH4 (3)
Equations (2) and (3) are simplifications of a complex series of reactions involving communities of microorganisms.
[End of Ref 47.]
Historical Contextﾠ
About the Article
- Trends in landfilling
- The biodegradation process
- The carbon cycle and climate change
- I’m concerned about climate change. Is waste decomposition in a landfill good?
- What is the relationship between carbon sequestration and landfill gas?
- Carbon sequestration and the drivers to measure carbon
Differences in Approach Between the US and Europe
Summary – Quoted Text Fromﾠ”Money for Old Rope”
“In summary, landfills generate methane during waste decomposition. This methane can be captured and converted to energy. Therefore, capturing landfill gas is good for climate change. Sequestering, or permanently storing carbon in the landfill, is also helpful.”ﾠ“It is vital for landfill owners to maintain accurate records on the quantities and composition of the waste entering their landfills and for policymakers to recognize the value of landfills in carbon sequestration. Proper accounting for carbon sequestration in landfills must be included in landfill emissions protocols to document actual greenhouse gas emissions at landfills.”ﾠ
Web Archive.Org Article Link
Technical Note: The original article link would show as a broken link in Wikipedia if used. This is due to the fact that the management of Waste Management World have placed a “robots” text-file on this location on their server which requires that search engines do not list the link.)
