ENERGY BUSINESS REVIEW – March 21, 2024 — Human beings produce vast amounts of garbage on a daily basis. For years, the conventional method of dealing with municipal solid waste has been to transport it to landfills. However, landfills present numerous issues—they fill up quickly, require significant space, contaminate water and soil, and emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas. In addition, a significant amount of the waste remains stagnant for centuries, posing long-term environmental challenges.
But what if we could use this waste as a resource? For instance, the organic fraction of waste could be separated and transformed into biofuel, coal replacement, Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), a soil enrichment or building materials? However, a substantial portion of this, around 50 to 60 percent, still ends up in landfills. Merely targeting the food waste fraction overlooks valuable digestible materials that could contribute to methane production in landfills over time and exacerbate the existing environmental issues associated with traditional waste disposal methods. As a result, it is crucial to develop advanced waste-to-energy technologies to effectively reduce the amount of municipal solid waste ending up in landfills and minimize the environmental impact.