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ENLARGE
Kathy Presnell
Our landfill is estimated to contain 2.9 million tons of garbage, with 100,000 tons added annually. All this rotting garbage produces methane, a natural gas that is 21 times more destructive to the environment than carbon dioxide. Currently we cover our landfill with dense plastic that restricts the release of methane, which is then vented out and burned off. But that is about to change.
Douglas County is now in negotiations with Ameresco, a Maryland-based company, to harness this methane and turn it into electricity that they will sell. Given the relatively small size of the Douglas County landfill, Ameresco was the only company to respond to the RFP (request for proposal) the county sent out on the project. The company proposes to cover all the construction costs and give the county 7% of the revenue generated. Negotiations are proceeding, with a possible 2009 start date.
Faced with the opportunity to turn methane into cash, don’t we want to increase the amount of garbage we take to the landfill in order to generate as much methane as possible? Wouldn’t that bring us more money to offset landfill operating expenses? I learned the answer is no.
As it stands now, Ameresco estimates that the county’s share of the methane-generated electricity sales would be $50,000 per year. Since the county spends $4.5 million annually in solid waste management, this arrangement would recover only slightly more than 1% of the operating costs.
So while it is undeniably a good thing ecologically to capture methane and convert it into electricity rather than just burning it off or allowing it to escape into the atmosphere, financially it is not the answer to our landfill budget problems. We need to dramatically increase our recycling efforts to keep as much out of the landfill as possible. More than that, we need to reduce and reuse items so they never enter the waste stream at all and our solid waste management costs can be reduced.
Here are answers to some recent reader questions:
Q: I’m having a bit of trouble with storing items until I have enough to take to the recycle center. I’ve been washing all the plastic items and taking off labels. Can I skip the label removal? L.J.
A: You can skip label removal, but please continue to rinse the items. And talk to your neighbors about combining recyclables so they accumulate more quickly. Then you can take turns dropping them off at the recycling depot, saving gas and promoting recycling in your neighborhood.
Q: How do you recycle or dispose of fluorescent tubes (48”)? J.C.
A: Home Depot will accept these for recycling.
Q: I am a customer of Roseburg Disposal and recycle all I can with them, but why are there so many things that they won’t recycle and I have to take elsewhere (therefore consuming fossil fuel), such as tin cans, magazines, paper of any color, plastic bags? Also, in many other communities they are able to have yard debris picked up and recycled appropriately. If I want to dump yard debris, I have to add it to my household garbage and that just seems wrong. D.P.
A: I asked the office manager at Roseburg Disposal about this. She said they bought their trucks based on the number of recyclables they were required to accept, and if they add another category they have to buy all new trucks and hire more drivers, and that is cost-prohibitive for them. As for yard debris, aside from composting, all you can do is haul it to the landfill to put in the yard debris area.
Q: If we compost at home, aren’t we creating the same amount of methane, just spreading it out over people’s backyards instead of concentrating it at the landfill? O.K.
A: No, because methane is produced by organic materials breaking down in a setting with limited oxygen, such as when they are buried in a mountain of trash. When you compost at home your organics receive adequate oxygen and the amount of methane released is much less.
A recent guest column about compact fluorescent lights produced the following responses: L.K. wrote “Turolights have less than 1mg of mercury, and would be my personal recommendation after LEDs.” See the company’s Web site at www.turolight.com.
DH wrote: “What good are the ‘green-ended’ fluorescent 40-watt lights with less mercury, when they burn out twice as fast?”
If you have any recycling questions, comments or ideas for this column, please e-mail them to dctrashtalk@gmail.com.
Douglas County is now in negotiations with Ameresco, a Maryland-based company, to harness this methane and turn it into electricity that they will sell. Given the relatively small size of the Douglas County landfill, Ameresco was the only company to respond to the RFP (request for proposal) the county sent out on the project. The company proposes to cover all the construction costs and give the county 7% of the revenue generated. Negotiations are proceeding, with a possible 2009 start date.
Faced with the opportunity to turn methane into cash, don’t we want to increase the amount of garbage we take to the landfill in order to generate as much methane as possible? Wouldn’t that bring us more money to offset landfill operating expenses? I learned the answer is no.
As it stands now, Ameresco estimates that the county’s share of the methane-generated electricity sales would be $50,000 per year. Since the county spends $4.5 million annually in solid waste management, this arrangement would recover only slightly more than 1% of the operating costs.
So while it is undeniably a good thing ecologically to capture methane and convert it into electricity rather than just burning it off or allowing it to escape into the atmosphere, financially it is not the answer to our landfill budget problems. We need to dramatically increase our recycling efforts to keep as much out of the landfill as possible. More than that, we need to reduce and reuse items so they never enter the waste stream at all and our solid waste management costs can be reduced.
Here are answers to some recent reader questions:
Q: I’m having a bit of trouble with storing items until I have enough to take to the recycle center. I’ve been washing all the plastic items and taking off labels. Can I skip the label removal? L.J.
A: You can skip label removal, but please continue to rinse the items. And talk to your neighbors about combining recyclables so they accumulate more quickly. Then you can take turns dropping them off at the recycling depot, saving gas and promoting recycling in your neighborhood.
Q: How do you recycle or dispose of fluorescent tubes (48”)? J.C.
A: Home Depot will accept these for recycling.
Q: I am a customer of Roseburg Disposal and recycle all I can with them, but why are there so many things that they won’t recycle and I have to take elsewhere (therefore consuming fossil fuel), such as tin cans, magazines, paper of any color, plastic bags? Also, in many other communities they are able to have yard debris picked up and recycled appropriately. If I want to dump yard debris, I have to add it to my household garbage and that just seems wrong. D.P.
A: I asked the office manager at Roseburg Disposal about this. She said they bought their trucks based on the number of recyclables they were required to accept, and if they add another category they have to buy all new trucks and hire more drivers, and that is cost-prohibitive for them. As for yard debris, aside from composting, all you can do is haul it to the landfill to put in the yard debris area.
Q: If we compost at home, aren’t we creating the same amount of methane, just spreading it out over people’s backyards instead of concentrating it at the landfill? O.K.
A: No, because methane is produced by organic materials breaking down in a setting with limited oxygen, such as when they are buried in a mountain of trash. When you compost at home your organics receive adequate oxygen and the amount of methane released is much less.
A recent guest column about compact fluorescent lights produced the following responses: L.K. wrote “Turolights have less than 1mg of mercury, and would be my personal recommendation after LEDs.” See the company’s Web site at www.turolight.com.
DH wrote: “What good are the ‘green-ended’ fluorescent 40-watt lights with less mercury, when they burn out twice as fast?”
If you have any recycling questions, comments or ideas for this column, please e-mail them to dctrashtalk@gmail.com.
Kathy Presnell is the Recycling Coordinator for Mercy Medical Center, and a volunteer with the Douglas County Waste Management/Recycling Department.
