By Judy Sheahan
October 8, 2007

Derek Porter of Covanta Energy, Ted Michaels of Integrated Waster Services Association and Mark Lyons of Waste Management, Inc, spoke about the multiple benefits of turning trash into energy, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and as an alternative energy source.

Porter discussed the solid waste hierarchy, or pyramid, that has been promoted by the Environmental Protection Agency – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Waste-to-Energy, and Landfill, which is the last option. Porter said that waste generation has increased by over a third in the past 25 years in the US alone. Currently, over 249 million tons of trash goes into landfills, while only 29 million tons goes to waste to energy facilities. In the European Union, they have a directive that requires the reduction of land filling raw garbage. When garbage decomposes in landfills it generates methane, a greenhouse gas that is approximately 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Methane makes up 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions with landfills being the source for 25 percent of methane.

In addition to offsetting methane from landfills, Porter explained how nearly one ton less of carbon dioxide is released into the air due to avoided land disposal, fossil fuel power generation and metals production for every ton of trash that is combusted in a modern energy from waste facility. Also, energy from waste avoids 33 million metric tons of carbon dioxide that would have otherwise been released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels instead. Another benefit found is communities that utilize energy from waste have higher recycling rates than the national average.

Although the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency have recognized that waste should be considered a renewable source of power, this assertion has been challenged by environmental groups. Michaels gave a legislative update regarding Congressional action impacting energy from waste. The House created a national Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that does not recognize waste from energy as renewable but they extended the production tax credits for waste to energy for four additional years. The Senate has neither provision.