| The Alternative to Landfilling | | Our modern resource recovery facilities differ significantly from the old fashioned municipal incinerators. Recyclables are recovered from the household garbage before energy is recovered from the residual waste through the waste-to-energy process. Waste-to-energy facilities that use municipal solid waste to generate steam and electricity are subject to strict EPA emissions standards. Those standards ensure that waste to energy is one of the cleanest sources of power in the world. Why waste-to-energy makes sense... Americans generate more than 225 million tons of trash annually. About one-third of that is recycled or composted, leaving 150 million tons of trash to be managed. This remaining trash will be handled using other elements of EPA’s integrated waste management approach, primarily land filling and waste-to-energy. Waste-to-energy is an effective method of trash management and volume reduction with the added benefit of generating clean energy. Modern waste-to-energy technology has proven to be safe, environmentally friendly and economical. Burning trash effectively destroys waste stream bacteria, pathogens and other harmful elements. The waste-to-energy process also reduces the incoming volume of waste by about 90 percent.* *The above information was obtained from IWSA Integrated Waste Services Association |
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Waste to Energy Solutions
