One man's trash is another man's treasure. The phrase should carry deep, metaphorical meaning and not be reflective of a man literally finding a broken toilet seat and making bank. But here we are in 2009, and anything is possible.
Despite having been long detested, landfills have in recent years benefited from numerous subsidies that help turn the natural gas byproduct of decaying material in landfills into energy. According to the Environmental Industry Association and EPA, on a daily basis, 1, 440 megawatts worth of electricity and 310 million cubic meters of landfill gas were delivered by these "green" landfills. And new projects to harvest the methane gas continue to pop up.
In Northern Utah, Weber County not only turns their landfill gas into electricity, but they also sell carbon credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange to companies looking to purchase renewable energy to offset the carbon they otherwise emit or cause to emit into the atmosphere. Last spring, Weber County made $102,000 selling the carbon credits, while sales from the natural gas for the same period yielded $240,000. Not bad for a stinking pile of crap.
A similar endeavor was recently approved in Fredericks, Maryland. Under an agreement with the power company, Energenic, the county will avoid paying $1.1 million to build its own gas extraction system and is projected to bring in $316,057 in the first year of operation. The amount includes money for the gas, renewable energy credits, and tax credits according to a county briefing paper.
Texas-based Waste Management has embarked on its own gas-to-energy projects, which WM says are minimizing greenhouse emissions and are now supplying enough gas to create enough green energy to power about 400,000 homes (at least 160,000 on a daily basis) and between five and seven million barrels of oil annually. (Saudi Arabia's trash-y new competition?) WM oversees about 300 landfills and supplies "landfill gas to over 100 beneficial-use gas projects in North America, providing the equivalent of more than 470 megawatts of energy."
The process by which gas is harvested from trash is fairly simple. As the garbage decays and produces a methane byproduct, landfill operators place collection wells around the site that draw up the methane like giant straws. The gas is then piped to a unit where it is filtered for contaminants and either compressed into containers for shipping or burned onsite. The heat generated from this reaction is then used either in a heating system in the form of steam, or used to turn a turbine-generator to make electricity.
Higher energy prices have fueled landfill gas projects, which now encompass one of the fasting growing energy markets. The EPA estimates that 520 more landfills projects are slated for development. Advances in landfill science, if there is such a thing, are allowing scientists and engineers to inject liquids into landfills to speed up the decomposing process and produce more gas. It's akin to pumping steroids into the garbage, only without the rage, hair growth and Congressional hearings.
The garbage to energy projects aren't just a way to get something for nothing, it's a potential avenue for removing an otherwise harmful greenhouse gas from the air. It's also a means for displacing our dependence on dirtier power sources, including Middle Eastern oil.
Kind of makes you wish you kept all that trash, huh?
Susie Kopecky contributed to this article
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