By Tyler Falk 
In a fascinating new waste management plan, natural gas from decomposed waste will power garbage trucks in the Canadian city of Surrey.

The city, the second largest in British Columbia, is converting its diesel-powered waste-collection trucks to new trucks that run on compressed natural gas. That natural gas will come from organic waste – around 65,000 tons a year – that will be taken to a new waste-to-biofuels production facility. At the facility, the organic waste will decompose and the biogases it releases will be turned into fuel.

A new report from Energy Vision, a New York-based organization that promotes the transition away from petroleum-based transportation fuel, says that the initiative will cut the total municipal waste stream by 75% through recycling (23%) and separated organics (51%).

Here’s how the city’s waste management plan is projected to reduce waste in landfills and increase recycling: [see below]

“The ambitious and exciting initiative by the City of Surrey is the first we have seen in the U.S. or Canada, in which municipal officials have assumed a leadership role in designing and orchestrating this type of closed loop system,” said Joanna Underwood, president of Energy Vision, in the report.

With the U.S. and Canada being among the top five generators of municipal solid waste per capita, Surrey is a model to help cities cut back on the amount of waste sent to landfills.

It’s also a move that will save the city $2.8 million a year for waste collection, when the new system is fully functioning by 2014.

Article from:  http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/cities/waste-will-power-garbage-trucks-in-canadian-city/1712 
Photo: City of Surrey
Graph: “The City of Surrey: Setting The Pace for Sustainable Transportation”

It's 5 a.m. and pouring rain. Not one of those mornings you jump out of bed, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. But at Waste Management's dispatch center near the Portland airport, 40 men and a few women have already arrived at work, laced up their steel-toed boots, strapped on their reflective vests and filled their coffee mugs. 

They're the first shift of the company's residential collection program, and in a few minutes they'll scatter to neighborhoods throughout Northeast and Southeast Portland, covertly whisking away half-eaten apples, empty yogurt containers and dirty diapers. 


Like the tooth fairy, their existence is confirmed by what they leave behind -- empty yellow bins and blue barrels where once there were mounds of discarded debris. 

 ***

By the time most of us hit the snooze button, Shawn Balfour has been up for several hours. 

The 41-year-old garbageman (though if you call him that, be prepared for a reminder that the proper term is waste collection driver) navigates his monstrous green truck down a narrow street just south of Southeast Woodstock Boulevard and 82nd Avenue. 

A car speeds past, nearly sideswiping the truck. 

"Happens all the time," Balfour says. "It gets kind of hair-raising. It's always scarier on days when it's raining because you can't see them, they can't see you." 

Balfour says most people view his job as mindlessly simple -- pick up the trash, move to the next house -- but it takes a great deal of expertise to operate a 17-ton vehicle. 

"We keep safety at the forefront," he says as the truck lumbers down the road. "I don't think people actually realize the amount of time it takes a 35,000-pound truck to stop." 
 
***

Aside from the occasional passing car, Balfour doesn't see another soul for the first couple of hours. He has never met some residents on his earliest route, but that doesn't stop him from looking out for them. 

When a resident goes on vacation without remembering to take their bins to the curb, he jumps out of the cab and empties them anyway. 

"Customer service is one of our biggest tools," he says. 

Balfour has helped customers change tires and clear branches from their yard after a big storm. Once, he called police to report a drunken driver, then followed the vehicle until officers arrived, rushing to the young woman's aid when she crashed into a guardrail. 

Just before 7 a.m., he has the day's first human interaction. A young woman is dragging her bins out at the last minute. Balfour offers to jump out and fetch the compost bin, but she waves him along. 

"She only has a little bit in there," he says. 

 ***

 By the time the sun comes up, Balfour is hours into his shift as a Waste Management truck driver.Customers toward the end of Balfour's route know him better. During the holidays, they leave plates of cookies on the recycling carts and in the summer they bring him Gatorade and ice water. 

He knows which homes have small children and makes a point to wave as they stare out the window at the hulking vehicle. 

Adults are trickier. They usually have questions about the new food composting program. Some like it; others say it's a hassle. 

"I tell them the less amount of stuff we take to the landfill, the less problems our children's children are going to have in the future," he says. 

He admits the program has a downside. It stinks. 

"I don't think any air freshener can take away organics," Balfour says. 

Rotten yard clippings smell like manure. With the recent addition of food to the mix, "I can't even describe it," Balfour says. A few minutes later, the truck passes an area smelling distinctively of skunk. Balfour chuckles. "That's one component." 

 ***

Before the sun is up, Balfour has covered a good chunk of his 900-residence territory. Around 11:30 a.m., he'll meet up with some fellow drivers for lunch at McDonald's. He will clock out at 2 p.m., then head home and pick up his kids from school. 

By night, Balfour is the typical dad. His wife is self-employed and works inconsistent hours, so Balfour cooks dinner and takes the kids to basketball practices and dance rehearsals. Tonight he plans to take his son to a Portland Trail Blazers game, so he'll be up late. He'll awake again at 4 a.m. tomorrow to ensure another week of sanity and sanitation for the next Portland neighborhood.

-- Kelly HouseThe Oregonian  


Article from: http://www.oregonlive.com/living/index.ssf/2012/02/everyday_people_portland_garba.html

 By Gina-Marie Cheeseman | January 26th, 2012
Landfills across the U.S. are teeming with waste. In fact, the average American throws away over 1,130 pounds of waste a year. That’s an environmental disaster because rotting garbage produces landfill gas (LFG) which is made up of 50 percent methane, a greenhouse gas with the warming potential 23 times greater than carbon. Municipal solid waste (MSW) is the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the U.S. In 2009, MSW accounted for about 17 percent of methane emissions according to the EPA. MSW landfills released an estimated 27.5 million metric tons of carbon equivalent to the atmosphere in 2009.

The environmental disaster can be avoided by using LFG as a source of energy to create heat or electricity. Landfills can “significantly reduce” their methane emissions through LFG projects. Over 365 landfills in the U.S. already recover methane and use it to produce electricity or heat. An LFG energy project can capture 60 to 90 percent of the methane emitted from a landfill. Generating electricity from LFG makes up about two-thirds of the operational projects in the U.S. Using LFG to offset the use of another fuel such as natural gas or coal occurs in about one-third of the operational projects.



The emerging area of LFG is producing alternative fuels. There has been successful delivery of LFG to a natural gas pipeline as a fuel, according to the EPA, and LFG has been converted to vehicle fuel as compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas. There are also projects in the planning stages to convert LFG to methanol.

LFG projects save money

Using LFG to provide power or heat generates revenue from the sale of the gas, and creates jobs for communities. Businesses save money by using LFG, and some companies can even save millions of dollars over the life of their LFG projects, the EPA states on its website.

Businesses are not the only ones that can save money by using LFG for power or heat. The LFG project developed in 1997 in Maryland Heights, Missouri for Pattonville High School saves the school $40,000 a year. The Fred Weber Sanitary Landfill runs a 3,600-foot pipeline run from the landfill to the school’s two basement boilers. The school is less than a mile from the landfill. To develop the project, the school received a $150,000 loan from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and a $25,000 grant from the St. Louis County Solid Waste Commission. Fred Weber invested $220,000 for the pipeline construction.

From New Mexico to Ohio

The City of Albuquerque, in New Mexico, will develop a LFG project to heat water in the Metropolitan Detention Center. The City Council unanimously approved the $1 million project earlier this month. The landfill already has 46 wells that extract the gas, but it’s burned off and not used in order to avoid releasing a greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. The EPA is contributing $500,000 to the project, the city about $300,000 and the county about $230,000.

The Houston-based Elements Markets LLC recently made its LFG-to-pipeline project in Amsterdam, Ohio public. The project is at the APEX Sanitary Landfill which is located on 1,285 acres, and receives about 1.8 million tons of waste a year. It is one of the fastest growing landfills in the U.S., according to a press releaseby Elements Markets. The project will produce over 32 million of British Thermal Units (MMBtu) of biomethane, enough to power 19,000 homes. It is expected to be in operation in 2013.

Article from  http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/01/landfills-provide-electricity/ 
This photo is courtesy of CT Recycling Guide.