A future without trash problems

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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We need landfills but who really likes them?

After all, they're filled with garbage. They produce some toxic emissions and sooner or later will leak runoff that can contaminate surface and ground water. And despite efforts to recycle the immense amount of trash our nation produces, landfills continue to be built or expanded, gobbling up more land, with no end in sight.

Even well-managed operations such as the one run by the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency are not a desirable long-term solution.

What if there was a way to make landfills obsolete or greatly reduce the need for them? And at the same time produce clean, renewable energy?

There is, according to proponents. It's called plasma arc technology. A plasma arc waste-to-energy plant planned for Marion could be a model for Iowa or even the nation, they argue.

Pipe dream? We don't think so.

This technology is proven. It uses powerful electrodes and a gas to create a plasma torch of extremely high temperatures. The process, with no combustion, converts organic waste into synthetic gas and inorganic waste into harmless slag. Emissions are low. The syngas can help generate clean electric power. The slag, a fraction of the original waste volume, can be used to make bricks, insulation and in paving.

Marion city officials and wastenotIOWA - a local non-profit group of engineers and other professionals formed when the county landfill expanded northeast of Marion - believe a plasma arc power plant can greatly reduce the waste going to the landfill and also boost the local economy and tax base. The city selected Plasma Power LLC of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as designer and owner, and in December committed $95,000 toward preliminary engineering costs for a plant estimated to cost more than $100 million.

Obstacles remain. The biggest: Plasma Power LLC says it needs a steady, major source of waste in order to line up funding for permits that require extensive engineering and design work. Lenders need lots of convincing. There are no other commercially proven plasma arc plants in the United States, though a few operate successfully in other countries and more plans here and abroad are on the table.

The county waste agency is the best option to provide a large, dependable amount of trash and has been asked to commit 100 tons a day for 20 years. The waste agency board recently endorsed the concept of the plasma arc plant - but no commitment to diverting the waste. Board members worry that a reduced wastestream could jeopardize finances of the landfill, which covers its costs by charging tipping fees for trash. The board also notes its recycling and composting programs, and wonders what other technologies for waste disposal might be attractive in the future.

Valid concerns. The landfill, a public facility, must meet its obligations. And recycling valuable materials should always be part of the trash-disposal equation, regardless of who handles it.

Nonetheless, the plasma arc project has exciting potential. The risk to taxpayers looks minimal. A 2010 study funded by a state grant concluded that the plant is economically feasible, though ECS Engineers of Tampa, Fla., stopped short of endorsing the project.

The path to reducing our reliance on landfills likely will never be risk-free. But sustaining landfill operations doesn't justify blocking a better way to handle trash. A sustainable future is at stake.

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