ECONOMY

WASTE MANAGEMENT SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2014 51RECOVERING ENERGY FROM WASTEWASTE MANAGEMENT – A MAJOR PRODUCER OF ELECTRICITYAs of 2011, Waste Management was reported to be the 100th largest electric powerproducer in the United States. 28 In 2013, our WTE facilities, along with our landfillgas-to-energyfacilities (see pp. 54–55) and two biomass plants, produced 10 millionmegawatt-hours — enough electricity to power over 1 million households, or the equivalentof over 6.1 million tons of coal. Based on data from the U.S. Energy InformationAdministration, Waste Management’s total renewable energy production exceeded thatof all U.S. utility-based solar production. The federal government designates waste as arenewable energy source, just like wind or solar power. But unlike wind and solar energy,which are variable in their daily, monthly and seasonal availability, waste-based energy isa base load source, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 29OUT OF THE ASHESAfter energy is recovered from thecombusted waste in a WTE plant, about10 percent of the original volumeremains as ash. This ash contains recyclablemetals that can be recoveredbefore the ash is sent to landfills. In2014, to significantly enhance metalsrecycling at our WTE facilities, Wheelabratorformed a joint venture withInashco, a Dutch specialist in the recoveryof both ferrous and nonferrousmetals from the ashes of WTE facilities.The new company, Eco Recovery Solutions,will use Inashco’s patented andproprietary Advanced Dry Recoverytechnology to assist in the recovery offerrous and nonferrous metals, includingpieces of copper, zinc, lead andaluminum as small as 0.5 mm in size, aconsiderable advance compared withconventional technologies.U.S. RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION IN 2013BY ENERGY SOURCENet U.S. generation (megawatt-hours)167.7Mwind9.3Msolar(utility-based)16.5Mgeothermal9.8Mlandfill gas7.3Mbiogenic municipalsolid wasteSource: www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_01_a10.0MWaste Managementtotal renewable energy