Technologies Promise to Turn Garbage Into Gold

March 29 -- Instead of tossing old computers, banana peels, used tires and other garbage into a hole in the ground, companies claim their new technologies can "zap" trash away.

It may sound like science fiction, but a range of devices are catching on that use intense heat and, in some cases, pressure to break garbage down into solids and energy producing gases — with little or no emissions.

For instance, Startech Corp. in Wilton, Conn., and the Solena Group in Washington, D.C., use molten hot plasma to scorch garbage in an oxygen-starved container to 30,000 degrees — or three times as hot as the sun.

The process causes molecules in the trash to break down, creating a stone-like material that can be used in pavement or kitchen tiles, as well as hydrogen-rich gases that are then burned as fuel.

Another firm, Changing World Technologies of Philadelphia, Pa., combines waste with water and applies extreme heat and pressure to separate the mixture into gas, light oil, heavy oil and solid carbon. The gas is burned, the water is drained and the oils and carbon are sold as energy sources.

The problem is the technologies are still fairly new and expensive and no one wants to be the first to try them out. Stricter emissions standards and landfill restrictions, however, could eventually force industries to consider these kinds of alternatives in the future.

"No one wants to sit there with a $30 million plant that doesn't work," commented Carmen Cognetta, counsel to the sanitation committee for the city council of New York City, where lawmakers have four garbage technologies under review. "They all say 'Put one in Chicago and then call me.' "

But in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, tighter environmental standards have prompted a greater willingness to test the new technologies. Plants using the plasma technology are operating or are under construction in Spain, Italy, Germany, Australia and Japan.

Charles Russomanno, a renewable energy expert at the U.S. Department of Energy, acknowledges it can be difficult launching new technologies in the United States.