Raising a big stink over waste to energy

But if he’s successful getting policy support for waste-to-energy facilities like the one his agency owns, he may well rebrand himself the “Energy Man.”

In the waste-to-energy process, municipal waste is burned at high temperatures in combustion chambers, and the heat is used to generate steam, which drives a turbine to produce electricity, Garg said.

The Union County facility is one of six in New Jersey, and can produce 45 megawatts of energy from solid municipal waste. If all of New Jersey’s 7.1 million tons of municipal waste were treated in this manner, Garg said, the state could generate about 600 megawatts of electricity, putting it closer to meeting the goals outlined in its energy master plan.

New Jersey in 2006 produced nearly 23 million tons of solid waste (including municipal, or household, and commercial waste), of which 12.4 million tons was recycled, Garg said. There were 11 million tons of municipal waste generated, but only 1.5 million tons was used to produce electricity, he said.

When compared to sending waste to landfills, waste-to-energy reduces harmful emissions, said James Stewart, a member of the environmental law practice group at the Roseland law firm of Lowenstein Sandler. “You collect [waste] in trucks, take it in trucks to landfills, use other bulldozers that emit carbon to place it in the landfill and cover it up,” he said. “And as it degrades, it creates methane, which emits into the atmosphere.”

Waste-to-energy also is “a reliable source of energy, generated at significant volume,” Stewart said. “We don’t have to worry about political squabbles with foreign countries to disrupt our [fuel] supplies.”

But residents often say they don’t want incinerators burning waste in their back yards, and the process has been criticized as contributing to greenhouse-gas emissions — a charge called “overstated” by the executive director of Camden County’s Pollution Control Financing Authority.

“We still have this NIMBY situation” regarding the not-in-my-back-yard attitude such facilities face, said Frank Giordano, of the Pennsauken-based authority. His agency handles up to 450,000 tons of waste annually, part of which generates about 23 megawatts of electricity, he said; the rest of it goes to a landfill.

No new waste-to-energy facilities have been built in the United States in the last dozen years, Giordano said, but perceptions are changing, with a facility planned in Florida and one on the drawing board in Maryland.

“The Europeans have embraced waste-to-energy,” he said. “In fact, they are putting waste-to-energy facilities in downtown Paris.”

But while Europeans may be taxed for putting such burnable waste in landfills, Garg said the technology gets unfair treatment from U.S. policymakers: Solar and wind energy get investment subsidies of $23 to $24 per megawatt, as opposed to none for waste-to-energy. “It does act as a disincentive for prospective investors,” said Garg, who is part of a national group that supports waste-to-energy.

Still, the potential business opportunity of waste-to-energy is attractive despite the absence of incentives, he said. Energy from waste could be more appealing to investors if it were to be upgraded to a higher category that fetches better rates from regional electricity grids.

Garg’s band of waste-to-energy supporters, the Washington, D.C.-based Local Government Coalition for Renewable Energy, is seeking legislative support for the practice in New Jersey and rest of the nation.

In the Garden State, Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula (D-Somerset) said waste-to-energy calls for big investment commitments, and “we need the commitment from a policy perspective that this is a viable technology.”

But “there are no magic bullets” on renewable energy, said Assemblyman John McKeon (D-South Orange), chair of the state assembly committee on environment and solid waste. Municipal waste is one option, along with solar and wind power, to meet the state’s renewable energy goals, he said, but wants more focus on energy conservation.

“In the fall, or late fall, we might do a public hearing without necessarily moving any piece of legislation, so people get comfortable,” McKeon said.