With higher energy prices, landfill tipping fees, and concern about carbon dioxide emissions, more municipalities across the U.S. seem to be willing to light a fire under their refuse and reap the benefits.
Municipalities are beginning to see WTE as more of a power plant for the production of energy and less of an incinerator for the reduction of waste, and this has political implications (reducing the need for liquefied natural gas and oil imports) and environmental ones as well (reducing greenhouse gas emissions by burning the biomass portion of waste for energy).
WTE facilities placed in or near urban centers eliminates long-haul trucking of waste to landfills, where greenhouse gases would be emitted by both the trucks and the decomposing waste in the landfill. When supplmented with sensible recycling programs, modern waste-to-energy provides safe and environmentaly sound waste management. Now if only we stopped producing so much garbage! Try telling that to the party animals who live in apartment above me...
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