Waste to Energy Technologies

We are always keeping an eye on the latest innovations in alternative energy and waste management for the BSP Fund. Here are some of the stories that caught our interest this week.

Bloomberg Plan Aims to Require Food Composting by Mireya Navarro on The New York Times

Mayor Bloomberg is piloting food waste recycling programs in New York City. While the programs are currently voluntary, many city officials hope to make them mandatory within the next few years. The administration is working with a composting plant that will be handling 100,000 tons a year, about 10 percent of the city’s residential food waste. Many smaller cities across the country have implemented food waste recycling programs, however New York will be the first majority city to adopt this type of policy. This program will save the city upwards of $100 million a year on waste management and create substantial amounts of alternative energy.

Trash to Cash: Norway leads the way in turning waste into energy by Helen Russell on The Guardian

The EU is leading the charge in generating energy from waste. This business has become extremely profitable for countries like Norway that accept waste from other countries to convert to energy. The energy produced in these plants currently provides heat and electricity to over 20 million people in Europe.

Recycling of food waste could fuel a new industry here by Jon Chesto on Boston Business Journal

Massachusetts is looking at the recycling of food waste as the fastest growing source of renewable energy. Anaerobic digesters throughout the state are beginning to accept food waste to increase the productivity of the systems. This is another step in the state’s attempts to reduce the amount of trash that is put into landfills and incinerators. Not only do both landfills and incinerators have negative environmental effects, but they also cost the state millions of dollars every year. This alternative energy option would help to reduce both of those effects and provide usable energy to feed back into the grid.

No Place to Dump Waste, Kolkata Municipal Corporation to turn it into Energy on Renewable Energy and Cleantech in India

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is looking to set up a waste-to-energy plant in order to manage the quickly increasing amount of trash in the community. As the current dump is overflowing and no longer fit for use, KMC needs cleaner ways to manage its waste. The waste-to-energy plant will help to prevent environmental damage and provide reliable sources of alternative energy.

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