Waste-To-Energy Plant Sees Trash Issues

Date: August 17, 2006

Source: News Room

830,000 tons of waste is dumped annually at Hartford's Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority's Mid-Connecticut Project, one of six waste-to-energy plants in Connecticut. About 2,000 tons of burnable waste is combusted there daily, producing about 1,400 megawatt hours of power. The waste-to-energy plants are an attempt to produce some good from American's disposable culture. Americans now produce over 390 million tons of waste per year, up more that 50 percent from what they produced in 1980. Recycling programs have waned slightly in recent years and struggle to keep pace with ever increasing per capita disposal. Many serviceable items like clothes, toys and even money - mostly coinage that could be donated to charities are routinely thrown away. The coins fascinate John Romano, manager of the Hartford plant, who said that the plant was not equipped to extract coins, but that he has heard of other plants that collect as much as $2,000 in coins per week.

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