Our new paper published in Science highlights the growing environmental risks posed by legacy landfill sites as climate change intensifies extreme weather, rising temperatures and coastal erosion. The publication, “Climate policies neglect risks posed by legacy landfills”, was co-authored by Prof William T. Sloan, Zhiping Zhang and Siming You.
The paper reflects on recent landfill incidents around the world that demonstrate how climate-related hazards can compromise older landfill sites, leading to risks including fires, contamination and waste release into the environment. The authors argue that current policies largely focus on active landfill operations and often fail to address the vulnerabilities of historic and closed sites.
The work calls for stronger, enforceable climate-resilience policies and climate-informed guidance to safeguard legacy landfills against escalating climate stressors and protect surrounding communities, ecosystems and water resources.
Read the paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aem1978
Zhang, Z., Sloan, W.T. and You, S. (2026) Climate policies neglect risks posed by legacy landfills. Science, 394(6820), p.176.