Waste Management expected to bring up to 10 landfill gas-to-energy plants online by the end of the year.

Of its 281 landfills in the US and Canada, 100 already have facilities that collect the methane and use it to fuel on-site engines or turbines that generate electricity to power surrounding homes and neighbourhoods.

An increasing number of landfill companies in Australia are looking at landfill gas-to-energy, driven by the need to reduce the carbon profile of landfill as a disposal option and the opportunity to add an additional income stream.

While the waste sector looks unlikely to be included in an emissions trading scheme at the outset, the carbon debate in the industry is alive and well.

US media reported Waste Management's additional 60 projects were expected to add 230MW of generation capacity to its portfolio, bringing the total to 700MW. The company will also sell power to retail power providers, municipal utilities and other users.

Waste Management's vice president for renewable energy, Paul Pabor, told media this week the revenue from power sales, coupled in part with federal tax credits, made the ventures "lucrative", but declined to provide specifics.

"There's an incremental growth aspect to all this. There's an opportunity to add income to each of these landfills where one of these power plants is going in," he said.

The projects' sizes will be determined by the amount of methane the landfills emit. Typically, less gas is produced from landfills in arid climates, while more methane comes from higher-humidity locations.

The US has 423 landfill gas-to-energy projects, which generate about 1,200MW of power, according to the US EPA. Another 560 landfills nationwide are candidates for such projects.