Renewable Energy
Waste Management operates the largest network of landfills in our industry with over 270 sites managing millions of tons of waste per year. This provides us with a vast supply of a renewable energy you may never have considered: landfill-gas.
Landfill gas is created naturally through the decomposition of waste. Made up of about 55 percent methane and 45 percent CO2, the gas is collected using extraction wells spaced throughout the landfill. Once collected, the gas can be used in any facility that would otherwise use fossil fuel, including electricity production, industrial heating and steam production, and liquid waste evaporation facilities.
Like wind and solar power, landfill-gas is a clean energy resource that has been endorsed by the EPA as an environmentally responsible alternative that reduces our reliance on fossil fuels. Over the years, Waste Management has worked closely with businesses, industries and public utilities to develop many beneficial-use projects. We currently supply landfill-gas to over 115 projects in North America, which provides the equivalent of over 550 megawatts of electricity enough to power more than 400,000 homes; a combined savings of over 2.2 million tons of coal per year.
Waste Management is also unique in the industry in that we offer in-house expertise and management for the development of these projects from start to finish. Our renewable energy group oversees the power plant construction, equipment maintenance and operation, and energy marketing of the power output. We helped pioneer the landfill-gas-to-energy industry, and we continue to aggressively develop new projects to help us reach our sustainability goal of creating enough renewable energy to power more than 2 million homes by 2020.
Since the early 1970s, our Wheelabrator division has been delivering successful waste-to-energy projects, providing clean, renewable energy and saving space in local landfills.