Clean solution for county's waste problem: Gasification
Clean solution for county's waste problem: Gasification
As a follow-up to our vote on July 13 to privatize Charleston County's recycling, County Council will consider technology proposals Sept. 2 or soon thereafter to find a solution for the county's non-recyclable waste.
Even if Charleston County is successful at achieving its goal of 40 percent recycling, 60 percent of its waste is still scheduled to be put into a landfill. It is incumbent upon elected officials to address all of our waste and find solutions that are the most environmentally friendly and cost effective on the market today.
One of the proposals is being brought by a local, Charleston-based project developer, Energy City, which hopes to build a gasification plant that will take the county's non-recycled waste, recover its metals and glass, and create energy.
Energy City is proposing a low-temperature gasification technology in use in fourteen locations around the United States and the world, where it recovers and cleans heavily contaminated metals and industrial waste, a much more difficult process than municipal waste. Some of these plants have been operating for more than 10 years, and in every case, they have far exceeded environmental standards without incident.
Gasification is a process that occurs naturally in landfills, where these gases contaminate the atmosphere with methane and other carbon dioxide equivalents. The technology the council is considering instead captures these gases, filters them, and then uses them to generate electricity that can power homes, while at the same time recycling 100 percent of the metals and glass without pretreatment or sorting.
The incineration plant was rightly shut down last year due to environmental concerns and citizen input. With emissions far below landfills or incinerators (99.8 percent below in some cases), this project has the potential to help protect our environment even further, providing a solution to Charleston County's waste that is scheduled to simply continue to be put in the ground. By cleanly producing power and preventing landfill emissions, the facility would create a negative carbon footprint with no hazardous emissions. Any ash byproduct will be inert and could be safely used as construction aggregate.
With any of these companies, I envision a deal in which the citizens of the county will not be on the hook for any upfront cost, with a cost per ton competitive to, if not better than, what it is currently costing us to put our trash in the Dorchester County landfill. Any contract will include an ability to withdraw from our commitment if the county is not satisfied with the results.
I am proud of the progress made with Charleston County's Recycling Program. I do not consider this proposal to be in conflict with our Recycling Program in any way. Rather, I view it as a complementary addition to these efforts, as this project would allow the county to recycle up to 100 percent of its metals and glass, even from waste that would otherwise be unrecyclable or was placed in the wrong bin.
The proposed project would, at no risk to the county, reduce or eliminate our need for landfill, generate electricity, improve our recycling efforts, and protect the environment. I invite Charleston County to find out more about Energy City and any other prospective gasification companies by attending the Sept. 2 Charleston County Council Meeting.
If anyone is interested in learning more about our local company that will be competing, please take a look at Energy City's project website at www.palmettorer.com.
In addition, over the next month, I look forward to hearing from my constituents and working to educate all of Charleston on the benefits of getting rid of our dependency of landfilling our garbage.
Paul Thurmond represents District 9 on Charleston County Council.
