Converting waste to energy.

Another way that we are helping to conserve fossil fuels is by converting municipal solid waste into energy. Waste Management’s subsidiary, Wheelabrator Technologies Inc., uses trash as fuel to generate electrical power through its 17 waste-to-energy plants, which have the capacity to process up to 24,000 tons of waste per day. Converting trash to energy substantially reduces the volume of the waste disposed of in landfills and provides a viable and economical alternative to the use of fossil fuels.

A leading waste-to-energy provider in the United States, Wheelabrator helped pioneer the process of converting waste into energy more than 30 years ago. Since then, the company has processed more than 118 million tons of municipal solid waste into energy, saving more than 120 million barrels of oil while generating 65 billion kilowatt hours of clean, renewable electricity.

In a letter to the industry, the EPA has stated that waste-to-energy plants, like those operated by Wheelabrator, produce electricity “with less enviromental impact than almost any other source of electricity.” And studies conducted in conjunction with the EPA have demonstrated that waste-to-energy plants prevent the release of millions of tons of greenhouse gases.

Together, Waste Management’s landfill gas projects and waste-to-energy projects produce enough electricity to power more than 800,000 homes, saving the equivalent of about 8.2 million barrels of oil per year.

Using trash as fuel to generate electricity, Wheelabrator's North Broward waste-to-energy plant in Pompano Beach, Fla, generates approx. 60 megawatts of energy, enough to power about 50,000 homes.