Technologies Promise to Turn Garbage Into Gold

March 29, 2004 -- 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.

Slow to Start in U.S.

"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.

"Sometimes the risk of demonstrating a technology is higher here than it is overseas for a number of reasons, including cost, regulations and operating costs," he said. "That means it can take one to 20 years for a good product to catch on."

Still, some industries in the United States are already using the water combination process to handle agricultural waste, while manufacturers including Ford, General Motors and pharmaceutical companies have long used plasma technology to vaporize hazardous materials that are barred from landfills.

But large, garbage-producing populations would need processors that could handle much more waste than any existing plants. Chicago produces about 3,000 tons of garbage a day, for example, while New York City produces a whopping 12,000 tons of garbage daily.

Joe Longo, CEO of Startech, says his company is doing everything it can to persuade U.S. municipalities to give its technology a try — including offering to build a pilot plant for free. After a hearing this October, the New York City council appointed an engineering consultant to consider Startech's and other companies' offers.

"They'd see it's quite a reliable and benign technology," said Longo. "It doesn't look like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. It's sophisticated."

Garbage Growing

Free pilot plants aside, one factor that could prove most persuasive is the growing cost of using landfills.

Cognetta pointed out while New York City used to spend $16 per ton to truck and dump garbage at the now-closed Fresh Kills landfill in the city, now it spends about $70 a ton — adding up to $350 million a year — to truck most of the garbage to landfills out of state.

"We need to find a way to get rid of our trash without dumping it in someone's back yard," he said.

Zapping waste may sound like a neat plan, but some environmentalists worry such ideas may detract from another clean way of eliminating waste — recycling.

"This is a time when we should be expanding recycling and reducing waste," argued Mark Izeman of the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City. "My concern is these technologies, which haven't even been shown to be fiscally viable on a large scale, are competing for the same materials."

But Dennis Miller, head of the Solena Group, points out before any waste enters its plasma processor, glass and metals are separated and removed for recycling.

And figures show there's hardly a garbage shortage.

Americans now produce a record 4.4 pounds of solid municipal waste per person every day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, for a nation-wide total of more than 229 tons of garbage every year. About 30 percent of this trash is recovered and recycled or composted and more than half is dumped in landfills.

Municipal officials are also grappling with an increase in so-called e-waste — obsolete computers, cell phones and televisions that contain toxic amounts of lead and copper and can't be dumped in landfills. All this points to what could be a changing landscape for garbage disposal in the United States.

"Right now we can't compete with a landfill — that means competing a technology with basically a hole in the ground," said Miller. "But we definitely see a market developing here."