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Should We Call Trash-To-Energy A 'Renewable Resource'?

A crane puts Kent County's trash into a hopper at Covanta Energy Incorporated
Rebecca Thiele, WMUK

Michigan is on track to get ten percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2015. Now state legislators are busy working on energy policies for the next ten years. Governor Rick Snyder’s plan focuses on natural gas and aims for 19 percent renewables by 2025. But a bill by State Representative Aric Nesbitt of Lawton could change the state’s definition of ‘renewable.’

The bill amends the Renewable Portfolio Standard—which defines a renewable resource. Nesbitt wants to add trash-to-energy to that list and pretty much everything the Environmental Protection Agency says you’re not supposed to put in the trash: whole tires, motor oil, untreated medical waste, asbestos, and even low-level radioactive waste.

As you might expect, environmentalists are less than thrilled.

“That really flies in the face of the intent of the law that was put in place five or six years ago," says Jack Schmitt of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters.

Schmitt says the current law has helped wind and solar industries to grow in the state. But under the new bill, he says dirtier forms of energy would get the same rewards.

“Which makes it a lot more difficult for those actual clean sources of energy that are actually renewable—like wind and solar—to thrive and be successful in the state,” says Schmitt.

Credit Rebecca Thiele, WMUK
The Covanta crane picking up more trash

The EPA says waste-to-energy facilities emit fewer greenhouse gases than coal or oil, but slightly more than natural gas and a whole lot more than current renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

Here’s Aric Nesbitt’s argument:

“Is it better that we get electricity out of it that produces 70 to 80 percent less CO2 than a coal-fired plant from 2008 would produce and convert that into energy here in Michigan? Or is it better just to send it to a landfill?” he asks.

Nesbitt says the current law is inconsistent—methane gas from landfills is considered ‘renewable,’ but burning trash for fuel isn’t.

But what if Michigan did burn things like tires for energy?

Andrew Hoffman is a professor of sustainable enterprise at the University of Michigan. Hoffman says, done in the right way, a few of the items on the list can be cleanly converted into energy. Tires are a good example.

“Over 300 million tires, used tires that we generate annually are burned as fuel in cement kilns, pulp and paper plants, and utilities," he says. "And if the proper equipment is put on, the EPA has determined that this can be done cleanly.”

But Hoffman says that’s not always the case. A lab test might feed an incinerator one type of waste, but real-life facilities could burn all of those different wastes together in what Hoffman calls a “chemical soup.”

“Possibilities for chemical reactions all the way through the process. So, you know the question of whether we can burn these materials cleanly is one issue. The question of whether we can label those as renewable energy is a very different issue," he says.

"And that’s what I find sort of cynical about this proposal is burning hazardous waste, burning tires, calling it renewable energy, to qualify for the renewable portfolio standard—I find that problematic.”

Hoffman says burning tires may generate energy, but it doesn’t give the state much incentive to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Kent County Solid Waste Division Director Dar Bass oversees one of Michigan's only two waste-to-energy facilities, Covanta Energy Incorporated in Grand Rapids. 

Baas says the company isn’t interested in burning anything other than trash. But with the Michigan’s low recycling rate, Baas says energy from trash should be part of the state’s plan.

“And until you can come up with a technology to do something better with it, I would suggest capture the energy from that—but the science has to be vetted," he says. "We have to make sure that the emissions and everything else matches what we’re trying to do from a public policy standpoint.”

Aric Nesbitt’s bill is awaiting review by the State House.