“Far cleaner than conventional incinerators, this new type of plant converts local trash into heat and electricity. Dozens of filters catch pollutants, from mercury to dioxin, that would have emerged from its smokestack only a decade ago. … The plants run so cleanly that many times more dioxin is now released from home fireplaces and backyard barbecues than from incineration. With all these innovations, Denmark now regards garbage as a clean alternative fuel rather than a smelly, unsightly problem.”A second and more startling point of interest is the comparison between Denmark and the U.S. in terms of applying this technical knowledge. While Denmark has 29 of these “waste-to-energy plants” in operation, “serving 98 municipalities in a country of 5.5 million people, and 10 more are planned or under construction”:
“By contrast, no new waste-to-energy plants are being planned or built in the United States … . There are only 87 trash-burning power plants in the United States, a country of more than 300 million people, and almost all were built at least 15 years ago.”The consequences of these different approaches are most apparent in this graphic that accompanies the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/04/13/science/earth/13trash.htmlTake care
David
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders in a Global Environment (2e)
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Europe Finds Clean Fuel in Trash; U.S. Sits Back
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
2143 words
13 April 2010
The New York Times
Late Edition - Final
1
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/science/earth/13trash.html
