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Print Edition StoriesFriday, August 14, 2009
Incinerators aim to provide waste-to-energy alternative to landfills
By Jackie Noblett
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Several major players in the waste incineration industry are pushing Massachusetts officials to end the moratorium on new waste-to-energy facilities, which the industry says would generate more electricity and reduce the need for landfills.
But ironically, landfills themselves are a critical portion of the state’s renewable energy portfolio, potentially setting up a conflict between the decades-old incineration business and the relatively new landfill gas industry.
The state Department of Environmental Protection is re-examining the moratorium as a part of its once-a-decade review of the Solid Waste Master Plan. Industry officials say the moratorium’s end is necessary, considering the amount of trash being sent to landfills both in the state and to neighboring states.
“The point is, you cannot recycle everything. There is going to be waste left over and the next best option is waste-to-energy,” said Ted Michaels, president of the Energy Recovery Council, an industry trade group.
Such facilities are often the focus of great controversy, as environmental groups point to the industry’s history of emissions and concerns on its impact on recycling efforts. The Sierra Club’s Massachusetts chapter has rallied against the effort, writing in an action alert to members: “Despite efforts to make incineration safer, it remains a 19th Century technology that is increasingly problematic given our dense population, dwindling material and energy resources, and the threat of climate change.”
Covanta Energy Corp., a Fairfield, N.J., operator of four incineration facilities in Massachusetts, says that since 1990, when such facilities came under the federal Clean Air Act, emissions of many pollutants have been cut by between 88 percent and 99 percent.
Waste-to-energy does play a significant role in generating electricity. The seven facilities in Massachusetts owned by Covanta and Waste Management Corp. generate 267 megawatts of power from 9,800 tons of waste daily.
Approximately 180 communities in Massachusetts send at least some trash to incinerators.
Partnerships with communities are crucial for incinerator operators, said Paul Gilman, chief sustainability officer at Covanta. “Without the fuel you really just can’t build one of these facilities.” While also unpopular, landfills provide a significant portion of the renewable power Massachusetts utilities are required to buy under the renewable portfolio standard. Some 30 percent of the state’s renewable energy generation in 2007 came from landfill gas facilities, which take methane generated in decomposition and use it to fuel turbines, both within the state and in neighboring states, according to the state Department of Energy Resources.
“No one is going to build a landfill just to generate energy,” said Dwayne Breger, division director of renewable and alternative energy at the DOER, “but certainly for the landfills we do have, they do emit methane and that methane has to be controlled, so society might as well use it as an energy source.”
While increased competition for garbage could hurt landfills, and therefore landfill-gas energy generation, developers of these facilities are not too concerned yet.
“My attorneys don’t feel there’s much chance of this being changed,” said Vic Gatto, chief operating officer of Canton landfill-gas developer Caletta Renewable Energy.
DEP officials didn’t comment on the review process.
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