Recovering and generating value from everyday materials
Waste Management’s mission is to generate value from what otherwise would be recognized as ‘waste.’ We partner with our customers and communities to manage and reduce waste while recovering valuable resources and creating clean, renewable energy.
As you may have seen on the CNBC documentary, garbage can be both a problem and an opportunity. As North America’s leading provider of integrated environmental solutions, Waste Management’s mission is to generate value from what otherwise would be recognized as ‘waste.’ We partner with our customers and communities to manage and reduce waste while recovering valuable resources and creating clean, renewable energy.
What We’re Doing:
Landfill-Gas-to-Energy
Waste Management uses waste to create enough energy to power more than one million homes every year. By 2020, we expect to double that output. Part of this renewable energy comes from landfill-gas-to-energy efforts such as the BMW story featured on CNBC. Waste Management also supplies 85% of the energy needs to the University of New Hampshire through a landfill-gas-to-energy program. Efforts such as these help reduce waste and generate positive environmental change, all while bringing financial savings via reduced energy costs. Powering businesses and communities with landfill gas is a positive solution, and a growing part of our business. With more projects on tap, Waste Management currently has 119 landfill-gas-to-energy projects producing 540 megawatts of power.
Learn more about BMW. (http://www.thinkgreen.com/home)
Learn more about how landfill-gas-to-energy works. (http://www.thinkgreen.com/landfill-gas-to-energy)
Waste-To-Energy
The average person generates about 4.5 pounds of waste per day. The good news is that we can reuse it to generate clean, renewable power. But this isn't news to us. Since the 1970s, through our wholly owned subsidiary, Wheelabrator Technologies, our waste-to-energy facilities have transformed over 145 million tons of municipal solid waste into 75 billion kilowatt-hours of energy. This form of energy production has been recognized by the EPA as creating "less environmental impact than almost any other source of energy." Waste Management has invested significantly in waste to energy in the U.S. and abroad with waste-to-energy interests in the UK and China. To help solve the problems seen on the documentary, WM is a partner in Shanghai Environment Group in China, where we bring increased operating and technical efficiencies and solutions to the rapidly growing Chinese WTE market.
Learn how waste-to-energy works. (http://www.thinkgreen.com/waste-to-energy)
Recycling
As North America’s leading recycler, Waste Management managed more than seven million tons of recyclable commodities in 2009. By the year 2020, we expect to increase the amount of material we manage to more than 20 million tons per year. With programs such as single-stream recycling and recycling rewards programs, recycling is becoming easier and more cost-effective than ever. WM’s Newark Materials Recovery Facility is featured in the program.
Learn more about recycling. (http://www.thinkgreen.com/recycling)
Innovations:
The potential to reduce, reuse and repurpose garbage is virtually endless. Waste Management is at the forefront of exploring and investing in these opportunities in order to make them a reality.
- Waste Management’s investment in Terrabon and Harvest Power is developing organic material into bio-fuel and methane gas for other uses. Terrabon is featured in the documentary.
- Through a joint venture with the Linde Group, we have built a plant that converts landfill gas into liquefied natural gas for use as fuel in our trucks. The facility is currently producing 13,000 gallons per day.
- Our S4 Plasma Gasification venture converts potentially hazardous waste into fuel for vehicles and energy plants.
- GreenOps recycling stations reward consumers for recycling, thus increasing recycling rates. Our partnership with Pepsi will help place over 1,000 recycling stations in public areas throughout the U.S.
- Waste Management’s Solar-Powered Compactors reduce emissions, and save cities and businesses time and expenses by decreasing the amount of collections needed.
Get Involved.
We all have a responsibility to the planet we share. As noted in “The Secret Life of Garbage,” the best way to keep waste from being improperly disposed is at the source. We can all help by maximizing our recycling efforts. Learn more about how you can do your part at http://www.thinkgreen.com/recycling
For Reference on Embedded Links:
BMW – http://www.thinkgreen.com/bmw-drives-forward
UNH – http://unhtoday.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/unhs-ecoline-gas-line-project/
Fuel in our trucks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXUk0KUCIy0
S4 Plasma Gasification – http://www.thinkgreen.com/point-of-view?pid=8
Harvest Power – http://www.wm.com/about/press-room/pr2010/20100901_WM_Announces_Expansion_of_Organics_Recycling_Services.pdf
Solar Powered Compactors – http://www.thinkgreen.com/financial-freedom