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Monday, Oct. 27, 2008 • News
New Jersey turning trash into power David Porter ASSOCIATED PRESS
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 is 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 land-
fills 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 more 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 their 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‚ “ newable energy and not everysources that the body wants a state hopes will It’s like you’re windmill in their combine to supbuying back your back yard,” said ply 30 percent Jeff Tittel, execuof New Jersey’s own garbage, but in tive director of electricity conthe New Jersey sumption by a different form. chapter of the Si2020. According erra Club. to the plan, New Marturano Jerseyans pro- Tom Marturano cautioned that duce 6.7 pounds New Jersey adding wind of trash per day, Meadowlands Commission farms might take 50 percent more a while since than the national landfill surfaces ” average. are constantly While wind shifting, but the Meadowlands Com- and solar power are in their relative inmission already has plans to install 20 fancy in New Jersey, Corzine recently acres of solar panels on the southern announced the state’s first offshore side of the 1-E landfill. wind power project‚ landfills in the Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s Energy state have been collecting methane gas Master Plan for the state touts land- and using it as fuel to generate elecfill methane gas as one of the key re- tricity for more than two decades.
Mike Winka, director of the BPU’s Office of Clean Energy, 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 from 1987, according to Marturano. That means the half-eaten Big Mac you threw away at 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.
MR. BOD: Participants offered show for audience Continued from page A1 categories. These included a spirit competition, formal wear, interview and a people’s Bod category, which gave spectators an opportunity to vote for their favorite competitor. Although each contestant put up a worthy fight, only one would be named the winner and become Washburn’s next Mr. Bod. After much
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deliberation, the judges named Phil Norris this year’s winner and recipient of the $200 prize. The four runnersup received gift certificates to Buffalo Wild Wings for their efforts throughout the contest. Crowning this year’s winner was former Mr. Bod from the 2007-‘08 school year, Josh Maples. “The competition was tough this year,” said Maples. “There were a lot of good candidates. It really didn’t hit
me how much I loved being Mr. Bod until I had to crown Mr. Phil Norris. It’s a fun event.” With a large showing and eager participants, the 2008 Mr. Bod competition could be seen as a success, and at the very least a comedic time for all in attendance. Lauren Eckert is a sophomore mass media major. Reach her at lauren.eckert@ washburn.edu.
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