Officials at the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority are celebrating the Waste-to-Energy Facility鈥檚 30th year. The plant聽has served as fuel for three decades, feeding a process that generates usable electricity, saves landfill space and reduces related greenhouse gas emissions.
To date, 10.7 million tons of trash has been combusted at the facility, authority officials said.聽鈥淚t鈥檚 the best way to process on a mass scale at this place and time,鈥� authority CEO Bob Zorbaugh said, referring to the trash-related needs of the county鈥檚 more than half a million residents.聽That鈥檚 true, Zorbaugh claims, even though the combustion process is not pollution-free.聽鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to pretend that the facility doesn鈥檛 have any emissions. It does,鈥� he said before weighing that against the alternative.聽鈥淵ou know, most communities in the United States have just a landfill,鈥� Zorbaugh said. 鈥淒o you just want to landfill everything, or do you want to do something different with the technology available?鈥�
The authority has a landfill, too 鈥� the 96-acre Frey Farm site in rural Manor Township that begn operating in 1989. However, the county likely would have needed two more landfills of the same size if it wasn鈥檛 for the waste-to-energy program, said Katie Sandoe, an authority spokeswoman.聽Space is saved because the process turns trash 鈥� mostly the kind of rubbish that鈥檚 put out for collection at the curb 鈥� into ash, reducing its volume by 90 percent before it is sent to the landfill.
To read the full story, visit .
Author: Sean Sauro, Lancaster Online
Image: Suzette Wenger, Lancaster Online