Another interesting article published on Taiwan’s Taipei News website discussed landfill & solid waste electricity. According to that article,

“Advances in recycling have enabled all 24 trash incinerators around the country to double as biomass electricity plants, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) officials said yesterday, adding that the efficiency of these plants was expected to increase with time.”

Here in the US, however, there have been roadblocks put up for such aggressive use of our waste resources. Debates rage on, particularly in areas with multiple Superfund sites like Florida, over whether such incinerators should be allowed to continue operations and whether new ones should be permitted. A group called GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives) has been spearheading local campaigns to go to zero-waste.

While I appreciate their arguments about hazardous waste handling, a ban on all incinerators effects more than just landfill trash and not all “waste” is created (un)equal. I fear that such arguments will keep viable biomass-to-power conversion out of the renewable energy considerations our administration is making. And, while zero-waste is an excellent goal for our future, we still have to decide what to do with the waste we’ve already generated for the past 100 years.