MARINA, Calif., - As the winner of 2007's gold landfill to gas site in the nation, the Monterey County Regional Waste Management District (MCRWM) is setting all standards when it comes to reusable energy. "It's one of the first landfills in the country," says MCRWM assitant GM Tim Flanagan.
And with the amount of trash that we produce on a daily basis, the benefits are rewarding to say the least. "We get about 800 to a 1,000 tons of garbage a day, it lights up about 4,500 homes with electricity on an annual basis."
If you're curious on how they turn the garbage into electricity, it's much simpler than one would imagine. You see, decomposing trash releases methane gases into our atmosphere, that's not good! "Methane gas is more destructive in the atmosphere than anything, says Flanagan." So beneath the landfill surface lies hundreds of pipes extracting the methane released by our trash.
"We have both horizontal pipes and vertical pipes and it acts under a vacuum." The vacuum draws the gas into the engine room where the conversion to electricity begins. PG&E purchases the converted electricity to power homes around the Penninsula. The net revenue for the electricity produced at the Marina landfill is roughly $2 million dollars per year, but the benefits for the environment are much higher. To put it into perspective, the methane that otherwise would be released into central coast skies is equivalent of removing nearly 35,000 cars off of our roads per year.
But decomposition, doesn't come easy for some items,"as you can see by looking into the trench, the one thing that does not break down is plastic, says Flanagan."
Plastic actually lines much of the landfill and it comes as no surprise. Organic matter such as foods decompose in about 6-12 months, while paper can take up to 3 years to fully decompose. Metals and glass take anywhere from 300-500 years to decompose and plastic and styrofoam will never decompose, staying in out landfills in the same composition.
