Environmental Stewardship
Across the United States and Canada, everything Waste Connections does today is with an eye towards the future, and we constantly monitor new technologies and programs that can enhance our commitment to the environment.
Did you know that landfills with gas collection systems can recycle nearly 25 percent of the material deposited in the landfill?
That makes landfills some of the largest recycling operations in the U.S. Here is the best part. The gas created and captured is reused for energy transformation.
From methane to megawatts, landfills operated by Waste Connections are harvesting gas emissions as a renewable source of electricity.
Two to three percent of the power for the City of Erie comes directly from the Front Range Landfill and Denver Regional Landfill. The eight-year-old sustainability initiative produced enough electricity to supply approximately 3,300 homes. That is over 40 percent of the homes in Erie.
As organic waste breaks down in municipal solid waste landfills, methane gas is created. Landfill methane is normally consumed (incinerated) in a flare rather than being discharged to the atmosphere.
The landfill gas-to-energy initiative provides an alternative to flaring. Capturing the methane at the landfills is equivalent to offsetting 30,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide that might otherwise be released in the atmosphere.
A vast majority of the landfills' methane gas is harvested through a perforated piping system of drilled gas extraction wells. United Power Cooperative cleans the gas by removing the moisture content and runs it through power turbines that delivery electricity to the grid.
Landfill gas to energy is a constant source of power that is running all the time, making Waste Connections landfills good neighbors and good environmental stewards in the community.
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