The environmental impact of landfills will be the topic of a special lecture at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 5, in Room 103 of the Engineering Management Building at Missouri University of Science and Technology. The lecture is open to the public.

Dr. Morton A. Barlaz, chair of civil, construction and environmental engineering at North Carolina State University, has been invited to present the lecture, “Development of a Carbon Footprint Model for Landfill Disposal of Solid Waste,” as part of the American Academy of Environmental Engineering’s National Kappe 2010 Lecture Series.

More than half of all solid waste generated in the U.S. is disposed of in landfills. These landfills are a leading source of man-made methane emissions in the U.S. and globally. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, 21 times stronger than carbon dioxide. Barlaz will discuss how a carbon balance can be achieved in landfills, the results of current research and how this information can be utilized in practice.

The lecture is sponsored by Missouri S&T’s Environmental Research Center and the civil, architectural and environmental engineering department.