By Libby Jones

The role of waste is changing. What was once perhaps the greatest sanitation and health challenge for communities might now prove to be an economic and environmental asset. Waste managers and environmentalists alike applaud the latest efforts to utilize MSW for ethanol fuel production. Generating energy from waste not only relieves the increasing pressure on landfills, but it might also provide the most sustainable form of energy possible.

Americans produce more than 400 million tons of MSW each year. Though we sort and recycle approximately 20% of this waste, an additional 70% is compostable and can be diverted from landfill disposal through evaporation, decomposition, or cellulose-to-ethanol conversion. By capitalizing on recent technological advancements and utilizing existing infrastructure, waste managers have a unique opportunity to reuse up to 90% of our MSW stream while generating short- and long-term benefits for themselves and their communities.

MSW-to-ethanol facilities provide a local solution to waste accumulation by allowing managers to dispose of materials within a 30- to 50-mi. radius of their generation point. The disposal is safe and permanent, requiring no burning, and employing instead a widely accepted acid hydrolysis process. Collocating an ethanol production plant with a materials recovery facility (MRF) also guarantees managers a long-term feedstock supply for which they can collect a substantial and stable tipping fee that is independent of market fluctuations.

Communities can expect to reap tangible benefits as well. Using a single facility to process a variety of waste products drives down collection fees by picking up trash, yard clippings, and recyclables with one truck rather than three. According to a recent study of more than 700 collection systems, residents’ waste recovery costs were 40% more expensive when not done under uniform municipal control. A MRF facility also requires less space than a landfill and, by operating for at least 30 years, stabilizes prices through long-term disposal contracts. Additionally, establishing MSW-to-ethanol plants in rural communities directly improves economic welfare by creating hundreds of construction jobs and permanent operational positions.

Though ethanol recycling facilities create tremendous economic incentives, their potential to improve our environment is remarkable. Producing fuel from MSW provides a revolutionary solution to multiple environmental problems by simultaneously creating a sink for waste and a source of renewable energy. With the population of the United States expected to grow by 75 million in the next 50 years, the need for waste disposal alternatives is greater than ever. Diverting MSW from landfill dumping and incineration conserves undeveloped lands while alleviating water, land, and air pollution caused by improper disposal and handling practices.

Biomass-based ethanol - the liquid transportation fuel derived from renewable, essentially inexhaustible resources - provides a viable solution to our petroleum supply problems for the next century and beyond. Ethanol produced from such cellulosic feedstocks as MSW significantly reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by both displacing fossil-fuel use and generating a full-cycle carbon-dioxide sequestration and emission process. Studies at Argonne National Laboratory concluded that cellulosic ethanol could provide a 60-110% reduction in GHG emissions. Ethanol also decreases carbon-monoxide emissions, contains no sulfur, and helps to eliminate smog through its use as an oxygenate for gasoline. Refiners and engineers find ethanol's versatility especially attractive, for it can be blended with gasoline, used as a pure fuel, or adapted as a hydrogen source for fuel cells.

The time to capitalize on emerging technologies and corporate investments is now. The necessary infrastructure exists, and the public has voiced its enthusiasm for an affordable and efficient solution to waste disposal problems. This summer, Masada OxyNol will begin construction of a 9 million-gal. MSW-to-ethanol plant in Middletown, NY. It will be the first commercial facility to recover recyclables from MSW and utilize residual biomass and sewage sludge for ethanol production. Though only a single and relatively small ethanol production facility, the Middletown plant is a model for future endeavors. It will become the cornerstone of an emerging industry with far-reaching impacts and endless possibilities. Let's not miss our chance to embrace it.

Libby Jones is program manager with the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington, DC.

MSW
Jan/Feb, 2001