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Sep 20, 2010

"You can tell how high a society is by how much of its garbage is recycled." --Dhyani Ywahoo

Fueled by Landfills

In a dry, windy canyon not far from San Francisco, California one landfill is curbing greenhouse gases by transforming its waste into fuel. "We own this big pile of trash, and we need to look at it and think, 'what can we do to get something out of it?'" said Ken Lewis, Director of Altamont Landfill Operations. With special technology, natural gas produced by decaying organic waste gets captured and used as fuel for the landfill's specially converted garbage trucks. This process eliminates the need for diesel fuel and will keep an estimated 30,000 tons of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere each year! "What's cool is you've got refuse trucks picking up waste, then fueling from garbage," says Steve Eckhardt. "It's a closed loop."