![](media/image1.jpeg){width="6.4944444444444445in"
height="0.9923611111111111in"}May 9, 2008

Trash Could Be Part of Answer for America's Energy Needs

By Congressman Joe Pitts

As we search for answers to our nation's insatiable demand for energy,
perhaps policymakers should look to none other than Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania. In Lancaster, near Bainbridge, the Lancaster County Solid
Waste Management Authority (LCSWMA) operates a waste-to-energy facility
that is literally turning trash into clean energy.

During a recent visit, I had the opportunity to see this incredible
technology firsthand. Right there, on the banks of the Susquehanna
River, trash that would have otherwise filled the local landfill is
instead producing 198 million kilowatts of electricity a year.

The Resource Recovery Facility (RRF) uses three separate furnaces to
burn solid waste at temperatures over 1,800˚ Fahrenheit. It processes
400 tons of waste a day, operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The
heat is used to convert water into steam, which turns a turbine,
generating electricity. The facility itself is operated using just 10
percent of the energy produced---the other 90 percent is sold to the
local electricity provider, First Energy. The waste is burned several
times, and the resulting ash is used as daily cover fill at the local
Frey Farm Landfill, negating the need for expensive fill dirt.

The statistics on the facility are impressive. In 2007, it processed
342,600 tons of waste and generated \$10.8 million worth of electricity.
Since the facility came on line in 1991, it has processed 6 million tons
of waste that would otherwise be sitting in a landfill. The facility has
generated 3.1 billion kilowatts of electricity, enough energy to power
all of Lancaster County's homes for 2 years.

The benefits of a waste-to-energy program are obvious. Trash that might
otherwise sit in a landfill is used to generate clean energy. The
facility uses and treats effluent from the Elizabethtown Borough Waste
Water Treatment Plant, which had been previously discharged into the
Susquehanna River, thus saving pollution from ending up in the
Chesapeake Bay. In addition, the facility recycles metal, glass, and
plastics.

We have, right here in the United States, a massive resource for
producing energy that is currently, quite literally, being thrown out. A
ton of solid waste has the energy equivalent of one barrel of oil. New
York City trucks over 30,000 tons of solid waste out of the city every
day. According to the EPA, in 2006 (the most recent year with figures
available), Americans generated about 251 million tons of trash. This
figure represents a huge untapped resource that is instead taking up
land to be used as landfills.

The up-front investment necessary to build a waste-to-energy facility is
indeed substantial. However, the factors that make waste-to-energy
favorable are increasing. As landfills are placed further and further
from the urban areas where waste is generated, and as fuel costs for
trucking the waste increases, waste-to-energy facilities are beginning
to make more sense financially as a way to dispose of waste.
Additionally, as electricity prices increase, the return on the
investment from the electricity generated by the facilities is becoming
more attractive as well.

The old-line opposition to waste-to-energy facilities claims that they
pollute the air. However, with significant advances in technology in the
last couple of decades, the emissions from waste-to-energy facilities
have become increasingly clean. The facility near Bainbridge uses a
number of innovative technologies to remove pollution from the air that
eventually leaves the stack. In fact, the Environmental Protection
Agency says the electricity from waste-to-energy facilities is some of
the cleanest energy out there.

The Europeans and Japanese have been utilizing this process at far
greater levels for decades. China plans to build 300 plants like the one
here in Lancaster. They can see the great potential that is present in
this technology.

As America struggles to meet the massive demand for energy that drives
our economy and supports our way of life, we should be exploring all the
possible avenues that will provide for increased energy production. By
turning our trash into energy, we can reduce the amount of land used for
landfills and we can add another resource to aid in meeting our nation's
insatiable demand for energy.

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