New Jersey Landfills Capture The Methane They Produce, Turn It Into Energy

KEARNY, N.J. — Standing atop the 400-acre 1-E landfill, you get a panoramic view of the Meadowlands sports complex to the north and the New York City skyline to the east. You're also standing on a critical part of New Jersey's, and the nation's, energy future.

Decades' worth of household trash, construction waste and assorted refuse buried in the landfill are providing electricity to thousands of homes.

"It's like you're buying back your own garbage, but in a different form," said Tom Marturano, director of solid waste and natural resources for the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, which owns and operates the 1-E site.

The Kearny site is among 21 landfills in New Jersey where methane gas produced by decomposing garbage is used as fuel to generate electricity, according to the state Board of Public Utilities.

That is almost as many as in the state of Texas and more than the combined number in Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Nationwide, the federal Environmental Protection Agency counts 455 landfills that use their methane to generate electricity and has targeted more than 500 others as potential candidates through its Landfill Methane Outreach Program.

One of New Jersey's leading environmentalists envisions the state's landfills someday making more use of the sites by installing wind and solar power to supplement methane.

"We see landfills as potential New Age energy plants because you can combine all three and create a steady source of power _ and not everybody wants a windmill in their backyard," said Jeff Tittel, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club.

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Marturano cautioned that adding wind farms might take awhile because landfill surfaces are constantly shifting, but the Meadowlands Commission already has plans to install 20 acres of solar panels on the southern side of the 1-E landfill.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine's Energy Master Plan touts landfill methane gas as one of the key renewable energy sources that the state hopes will combine to supply 30 percent of New Jersey's electricity by 2020. According to the plan, New Jerseyans produce 6.7 pounds of trash per day, 50 percent more than the national average.

While wind and solar power are in their relative infancy in New Jersey _ Corzine recently announced the state's first offshore wind power project _ landfills in the state have been collecting methane gas and using it as fuel to generate electricity for more than two decades.

Mike Winka, director of the Board of Public Utilities' clean energy office, said new landfills in New Jersey are required to be designed to accommodate methane gas collection.

Existing landfills can produce methane long after they've been shut down.

For example, the freshest garbage in the Kingsland landfill, adjacent to 1-E, dates to 1987, according to Marturano. That means the half-eaten Big Mac you threw away near the end of the Reagan administration may be helping to light your neighbor's home today.

Marturano estimates the 1-E landfill can keep collecting methane for 20 more years or so. He said the energy produced by the four landfills in the Meadowlands district powers about 25,000 homes.

The Edgeboro landfill in East Brunswick, operated by the Middlesex County Utilities Authority, has been collecting methane since 2001 and currently generates about 13 megawatts of electricity, enough for about 13,000 homes for a year, according to Public Service Electric and Gas, the state's largest utility.

The Middlesex County agency uses the electricity generated by the Edgeboro landfill's methane to power the county's wastewater treatment plant in Sayreville. Last year, that saved the authority about $3 million, according to executive director Rich Fitamant.

Methane gas is produced by micro-organisms that feed on organic matter in trash. The bacteria are not picky eaters and have adapted to feasting on wood, cardboard or plastic if food waste isn't available.

"It's evolution on a fast track," Marturano said.

Long tubes with perforated bases are drilled down into a landfill to collect the methane gas, which then is used as fuel to drive generators. Inactive landfills like 1-E are capped, usually with a plastic or rubber covering that prevents excess gas from escaping.

"People used to think of the landfills as wasted space," Marturano said. "But we're turning them from the juvenile delinquents of the district into productive members of society."

Comments

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

Go Jersey! At least the only and most disgusting part of Jersey is starting to get a green tag. I grew up in northern NJ, and the Kearney landfill area down to the airport, is the armpit of NJ. Unfortunately, that's where the airport IS, and people assume this IS New Jersey.

Jersey is gorgeous. North, West and South..... Central....not so much. Anything around Newark is diseased with its corruption, mob and pollution....and Camden, well, isn't much better.

I hope Jersey can set a trend for other trash landfills......although IMO, RECYCLING is the best solution for landfills.

[AngieMom57]

"People used to think of the landfills as wasted space," Marturano said. "But we're turning them from the juvenile delinquents of the district into productive members of society."

"For example, the freshest garbage in the Kingsland landfill, adjacent to 1-E, dates to 1987, according to Marturano. That means the half-eaten Big Mac you threw away near the end of the Reagan administration may be helping to light your neighbor's home today."

Thank you for printing a solution! Sure our economy is suffering right now and all the great minds have their heads to the grind stone, yet our ecology or saving our environment is something we can all do 24/7; small things like unplugging night lamps, appliances that are not being used, riding public transportation, or better biking, eating sensibly, so many solutions need to be headlined for the good of us all.

[greencreek]

Every week when I go shopping it has become clearer to me that we can start our own green revolution by focusing on eliminating plastic bags from our lives. It may sound like an insignificant step but making this one small change in our daily routine will save precious natural resources.
The raw material used to create a plastic bag is oil; therefore we can reduce carbon emissions by eliminating plastic bags. Plastic bags raise consumer prices unnecessarily. Plastic bags add unnecessary mass to our landfills that are already overwhelmed. It takes more than 1,000 years for a non-recyclable plastic bag to break down in a landfill. The good news is that there are excellent alternatives to the plastic bag that people use all over the world. Simply changing over to the paper grocery bag, however, although it may be preferable to plastic, is not the answer. The real solution is to train ourselves to adopt only reusable bags for groceries and shopping. As we all know, these bags are now readily available at many of the grocery stores that we shop in. The grocery chain Whole Foods has even taken the step to take 10 cents off grocery bills for every reusable bag brought in and used by a customer. 10 cents may not sound like a lot but think about how many bags you use every day when you’re running into the store just to pick up some milk. Believe me, it all adds up.