Wastecon 2011

Several panelists at a session on waste-to-energy (WTE) at Wastecon 2011, the annual convention of SWANA (the Solid Waste Association of North America), had seen earlier version of waste-to-energy as a growing trend within the industry.

For the most part, the panelists were encouraged that solid waste districts could learn from earlier booms and create systems that are better able to serve their communities well for decades to come.

Paul Stoller of the Boston area’s Stoller Consulting said that a document prepared for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the 1970s remained a good road map for districts and consultants embarking on a WTE project today.

The EPA Resource Recovery Management Model, said Stoller, “provides a comprehensive description of all the activities necessary to complete a project.”

The “comprehensive” part may be intimidating, said Stoller, but it is important. “Many projects have been [derailed] because of shortcuts,” he remarked. The EPA document calls for putting the hardest steps, such as site selection, first, so a project’s feasibility can be determined upfront.


Read more : http://www.recyclingtoday.com/wastecon-coverage-2011-old-and-new-in-wte.aspx