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Opinion- Is It Better To Burn Or Bury Waste?
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By John G. Waffenschmidt, Covanta Energy
Not a day goes by without hearing about the need to adopt more sustainable practices, but what does that mean in connection with everyday household waste? Sustainable solid waste management means that first and foremost, we should reduce the quantity of waste produced, then recycle that which is recyclable, to compost that which is compostable, and then dispose of the remaining waste in an environmentally responsible manner.
Disposal can take one of two forms: the waste either goes to a waste processing facility, typically an Energy-from-Waste (EfW, also known as waste-to-energy) facility or, more often, to a landfill. What you may not be aware of is the dramatically different environmental impacts. Three U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists recently authored a paper titled ‘Is it better to Burn or Bury Waste for Clean Energy Generation’ and they concluded that EfW is superior from a greenhouse gas (GHG) and energy perspective.
The superiority of EfW over landfilling from a GHG perspective is achieved by comparing three metrics: emissions, energy production, and recycling. EfW facilities emit no methane; landfills, even the best controlled, have methane emissions. Methane is 21-25 times more potent as a GHG than carbon dioxide (CO2), the more common GHG.
Each ton of waste disposed at an EfW facility yields 5-10 times more energy than a ton which goes to a state-of-the-art landfill. In our 45 plant portfolio, we capture between 2 and 5 percent of the incoming trash as metals, which we then direct to recycling markets. The Delaware County EfW facility is in the 3 percent recovery range, having recycled almost 38,000 tons of metals in 2009. For every one ton of waste processed into energy at the Delaware County Resource Recovery Facility we are offsetting about a ton of GHG.
At the moment, there is no comprehensive Federal law regulating GHG, but the debate is underway. It appears that EfW will be treated as is typical in other developed countries, namely that EfW will be recognized as a mitigation technology that can play an important role as a net reducer of GHG emissions, as well as a viable renewable energy source.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has listed EfW as a GHG reduction strategy and the European Union has proposed to tax disposal of certain wastes going to landfills to encourage solutions, other than landfilling, including EfW.
While global warming minimization and mitigation are extremely important as part of the contribution of the Delaware Valley EfW, we should also realize that the controlled combustion of MSW with power generation is accomplished with low overall emissions.
The Chester facility exemplifies this with emissions substantially below the limitations established to be fully protective of human health and the environment. A review of these facts lead the USEPA to characterize EfW facilities as among the cleanest producers of electricity.
The Delaware Valley Facility has tried to be a good neighbor in the City of Chester by participating in community events such as the Mayor’s City-Wide Cleanup Day, the Chester Little League, the Chester Environmental Partnership, Delaware County’s Household Hazardous Waste Collection, and support of several academic events and programs.
In summary, the current Delaware Valley EfW facility has world class state-of-the-art emissions control, is fully compatible with recycling programs, and is an integrated and involved corporate citizen of Chester.
From a global perspective, EfW in Chester reduces GHG emissions by about a ton for each ton combusted as well as reduces the combustion of fossil fuel by a barrel equivalent of oil for each ton processed.
Choosing to bury instead of burn is a vote to increase GHGs and to increase the consumption of fossil fuels, as well as to reduce recycling. To the extent that there are more EfW facilities in the United States, we will be making strides to lower GHG emissions and producing energy without the use of fossil fuels.
John G. Waffenschmidt is vice president Environmental Science & Community Affairs for Covanta Energy.
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5/3/2010 |
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