1.
Waste toEnergy

2.
Waste in America The average American discards 4.34 pounds of trash everyday. If all the waste was collected, put into average sized garbage trucks, and positioned in a straight line across the U.S., it would extend from New York to California, more than 100 times. Americans produce more and more waste every year.

3.
What can we do with our trash? Of the 4.34 pounds of trash discarded everyday, about 1.5 pounds are recycled or composted. What happens to the rest you ask? It will either be burned or sent to underdeveloped countries (for a fee) to sit in a landfill. However, these tactics seem inane since the development of Waste to Energy.

4.
Where can Waste to Energy be found? Today trash, often called municipal solid waste (MSW), is burned in special waste to energy plants. About 87 waste to energy plants can be found in the United States today.

5.
EPA Awarded Grant One plant in particular, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, was awarded an EPA grant for research, due to their innovative methods in turning food waste into energy.

6.
CO2 Emissions According to the U.S. EPA MSW Decision Support Tool nearly one ton of CO2 equivalent emissions are avoided for every ton of MSW handled by a waste-to-energy plant.

7.
Benefits of Waste to Energy Energy produced by waste can be used to heat buildings or generate electricity. However, the major advantage of burning waste is that it reduces the amount of material that is deposited in landfills.

8.
For more information on topics like this visit our Resources page at www.Microempowering.org