The city of Modesto, CA will dump their recycling program for good at the end of the month. Yet one recent editorial posits that Modesto is one of the most forward-thinking green communities in America. The city of Modesto asks residents to separate their trash into two separate bins–one for mulch and yard clippings, and another bin for regular trash.
Modesto's composting program, which turns yard clippings and prunings into soil supplements, has been making mulch since 1997.
The Modesto Bee editorial notes, “Its composting facility has been operating since 1997, and in the last few years, with the addition of new equipment to screen and sort, the city now composts paper, cardboard and food scraps, including sizable volumes from restaurants and hospitals.” 250 tons of natural waste comes into their composting facility every day, where it's composted into soil.
Modesto also contracts with another facility to send their 800 tons of daily garbage to a processing plant, where it's converted to energy and sold to Pacific Gas & Electricity. Their Stanislaus Resource Recovery Facility creates a 90-percent volume reduction, as well as 22 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 20,000 homes in the Modesto community.
Modesto has the right idea on thinking of creative ways to turn urban waste into money to support their municipal infrastructure.
The Kidderminster Shuttle, a UK news website, takes an in-depth look at anaerobic digestion as a renewable energy source in Britain. The British government has set a national target to harvest 20% of their renewable energy from anaerobic digestion waste management systems by 2020. The Shuttle argues that biogas is deserving of the same funding and publicity as solar and wind power, and that the natural gas produced from yard clippings, food scraps, sewage, and manure could become an important part of Great Britain's ecological and economical future. “Biogas has benefits on so many fronts,” explains Janine Freeman, head of the National Grid's sustainable gas division. “It provides a solution for what to do with our waste with the decline in landfill capacity, and it would help the UK with a secure supply of gas as North Sea sources run down.” Three reasons why The Shuttle supports biogas and anaerobic digestion: 1. British households toss out 18 million tons of food waste every year. Energy produced from food waste alone could generate enough electricity to light up 700,000 UK homes. Large scale dreaming? Denmark, an early converter to biogas waste facilities, is already producing energy from their 1.1 tons of food waste. 2. UK landfills are almost at full capacity, and methane emissions seriously damage the atmosphere. There are over 4,000 landfills in Great Britain, and it's estimated that those waste dumps release 1.5 million tons of methane into the atmosphere every year. Biogas facilities produce way less emissions in the atmosphere than incinerating trash at landfills, which has also been voiced as an option. 3. Biogas could become a reliable cash investment. The Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association says that embracing biogas could result in 40,000 jobs, and eventually supply 2/3 of Britain's needed renewable energy. The ADBA advocates building over 1000 anaerobic digestion plants with private sector funding. Even though those plans would require a five billion pound investment, the ADBA thinks the gas those plants generate would bring in a revenue string of 1.7 billion pounds a year. The Shuttle writes: “At present there are only a small number of anaerobic digestion plants in the UK…Rumours have also been circulated that local councils in London, Glasgow and Manchester are considering emulating a German model and implementing the UK's first biogas arrangement – which would be the world's first urban biogas network.” Read the article, “Waste not, want not”, here. With Harvest Power technology, anaerobic digestion could create a steady, profitable, and green supply of biogas for the UK. Find out more about Harvest Power technologies here.
Modesto's composting program, which turns yard clippings and prunings into soil supplements, has been making mulch since 1997.
The Modesto Bee editorial notes, “Its composting facility has been operating since 1997, and in the last few years, with the addition of new equipment to screen and sort, the city now composts paper, cardboard and food scraps, including sizable volumes from restaurants and hospitals.” 250 tons of natural waste comes into their composting facility every day, where it's composted into soil.
Modesto also contracts with another facility to send their 800 tons of daily garbage to a processing plant, where it's converted to energy and sold to Pacific Gas & Electricity. Their Stanislaus Resource Recovery Facility creates a 90-percent volume reduction, as well as 22 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 20,000 homes in the Modesto community.
Modesto has the right idea on thinking of creative ways to turn urban waste into money to support their municipal infrastructure.
The Kidderminster Shuttle, a UK news website, takes an in-depth look at anaerobic digestion as a renewable energy source in Britain. The British government has set a national target to harvest 20% of their renewable energy from anaerobic digestion waste management systems by 2020. The Shuttle argues that biogas is deserving of the same funding and publicity as solar and wind power, and that the natural gas produced from yard clippings, food scraps, sewage, and manure could become an important part of Great Britain's ecological and economical future. “Biogas has benefits on so many fronts,” explains Janine Freeman, head of the National Grid's sustainable gas division. “It provides a solution for what to do with our waste with the decline in landfill capacity, and it would help the UK with a secure supply of gas as North Sea sources run down.” Three reasons why The Shuttle supports biogas and anaerobic digestion: 1. British households toss out 18 million tons of food waste every year. Energy produced from food waste alone could generate enough electricity to light up 700,000 UK homes. Large scale dreaming? Denmark, an early converter to biogas waste facilities, is already producing energy from their 1.1 tons of food waste. 2. UK landfills are almost at full capacity, and methane emissions seriously damage the atmosphere. There are over 4,000 landfills in Great Britain, and it's estimated that those waste dumps release 1.5 million tons of methane into the atmosphere every year. Biogas facilities produce way less emissions in the atmosphere than incinerating trash at landfills, which has also been voiced as an option. 3. Biogas could become a reliable cash investment. The Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association says that embracing biogas could result in 40,000 jobs, and eventually supply 2/3 of Britain's needed renewable energy. The ADBA advocates building over 1000 anaerobic digestion plants with private sector funding. Even though those plans would require a five billion pound investment, the ADBA thinks the gas those plants generate would bring in a revenue string of 1.7 billion pounds a year. The Shuttle writes: “At present there are only a small number of anaerobic digestion plants in the UK…Rumours have also been circulated that local councils in London, Glasgow and Manchester are considering emulating a German model and implementing the UK's first biogas arrangement – which would be the world's first urban biogas network.” Read the article, “Waste not, want not”, here. With Harvest Power technology, anaerobic digestion could create a steady, profitable, and green supply of biogas for the UK. Find out more about Harvest Power technologies here.
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