CNBC offers coverage of the various waste management strategies in California, highlighting, in particular, Waste to Energy. The video features technical experts in the field including Susan Thorneloe of the U.S. Environmental Protection agency (who has published policy analysis work such as “Is It Better To Burn or Bury Waste for Clean Electricity Generation?”), and Professor Marco J. Castaldi of CCNY.
Viewers get an inside look at a Covanta Waste to Energy facility, the Stanislaus Resource Recovery Facility, that operates at net energy output of 20 megawatts and takes in nearly 30,000 tons of waste annually. This capaicity is sufficient to power approximately 18,000 homes.
When asked about the relative merits between landfill and Waste to Energy, Susan Thorneloe pointed to the merits of Wate to Energy being the extraction of the energy value from the waste, the metal recovery, and the avoidance of methane that is produced in the landfill alternative scenario.