Satellite data reveals massive methane plumes at Turkish landfill sites ahead of climate summit

Satellite surveillance shows that the Silivri municipal waste dump in Istanbul is Turkey's worst super-emitting waste site, releasing an average of 7.4 tonnes of methane an hour. Experts at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Carbon Mapper identified the site as one of the worst in the world, with a planet-warming impact equivalent to 1.5 million gas-guzzling SUVs. Other super-emitting dumps stretch across Turkey from İzmir to Ankara and Antalya, including another site in outer Istanbul at Şile that pours 4 tonnes of methane into the atmosphere every hour. Local residents near the Silivri landfill have spent years plagued by a foul smell forcing them to keep windows closed during hot summer nights. Kemalettin Özenç, a resident of the nearby village of Yolçatı, said the smell suffocates people and that families sometimes linger outside until midnight when the air is still. Some residents left outraged complaints on Google Maps, while Özenç tried to rally people to sign a petition for the forestries ministry. Many locals, however, feared speaking out due to local political tensions and the proximity of a maximum security prison where the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was detained following corruption accusations in 2025. Staff from the Istanbul metropolitan municipality's waste management division, İstaç, appeared surprised by satellite images of the invisible gas leak. Fatih Arslan of İstaç blamed emissions on uncovered areas of waste not yet covered with clay and noted that an on-site facility extracts 6,000 cubic metres of methane an hour to burn for energy. The head of the facility, Ebu Bekir Ikinci, argued that current operations are a vast improvement over the 1990s, when streets were piled high with rubbish and a 1993 methane explosion at a dump killed 39 people. Turkey's official record of greenhouse gas emissions acknowledges that uncontrolled methane release from landfills is a major contributor to its waste sector emissions. The revelations arrive as Turkey prepares to host the UN global climate summit, Cop31, in November in Antalya, having placed cutting methane emissions at the top of its action agenda. Turkey's environment minister and Cop31 president-designate, Murat Kurum, wrote to 196 attending nations that reducing methane is among the fastest strategies for slowing near-term temperature rise. Turkey's first lady, Emine Erdoğan, has campaigned globally for zero waste, though Turkey is not among the 159 countries to have signed the Global Methane Pledge to achieve a 30% reduction by 2030. Neither Turkey's environment ministry nor the Istanbul municipality commented on the landfill emissions when contacted. Cara Horowitz, who leads the UCLA Stop Methane project, stated that many Turkish sites have mind-bogglingly large emission rates on a global scale. Dr Tia Scarpelli of Carbon Mapper noted that gas collection systems vary in design, efficiency, and day-to-day management, while South Korea successfully recycles nearly 100% of its food waste to stop rotting at the source. Meanwhile, political tensions persist between the central government in Ankara and opposition-controlled municipalities managing cities like Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir.

Context

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that traps significantly more heat than carbon dioxide in the short term, making its reduction an urgent priority for immediate climate benefits. Landfills are major global sources of methane because organic material like food waste rots anaerobically under layers of rubbish. Capturing this gas for energy or preventing food waste from entering dumps in the first place are recognized international strategies for curbing near-term global heating.