Posted on 07/13/2004 7:43:36 AM PDT by crv16
"I recycle, therefore I'm a bad Christian?"
No, just misinformed and silly.
"If I were offered the 10,000 square foot home of my dreams, free of charge"
Don't hold your breath.
"Given how much Methane they produce, I'm suprised that more landfills aren't used as an energy source."
BMW is using recycled methane gas as energy source
Spartanburg, S.C. — BMW Manufacturing Corp. has begun recycling methane gas as an energy source. The recycled methane gas, drawn from the Palmetto Landfill near Spartanburg, will supply BMW with 25 percent of its energy needs.
"This is a win-win for everyone," said U.S. EPA administrator Christie Whitman. "It avoids the need to burn methane. It yields significant amounts of clean energy. And by avoiding 55,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, it results in cleaner, healthier air for everyone to breathe."
"BMW wants to do whatever it can to make Upstate South Carolina a better place to live," said Dr. Helmut Leube, president of BMW Manufacturing Corp. "This project allows BMW to take a wasted source of energy and use it to generate electricity, which benefits the environment and area residents through lower emissions."
BMW's project is unique in that the methane gas is used to fuel four turbines at the BMW factory, which produce electricity and hot water. Most other landfill gas projects produce electricity at the landfill and use it only for electricity or direct heating. The efficient cogeneration of electricity and hot water has been a part of BMW's overall plan since construction began on the plant in 1993.
"Cogeneration is used at many of BMW's worldwide facilities," said Gary Weinreich, BMW's manager for environmental services. "We are pleased to add a 'green power' component by using this renewable energy source. We strive to be a good environmental partner with the community by simultaneously improving energy utilization and regional air quality."
BMW's Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project is supported by EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program, which began in 1994 as a means of converting landfill gas into clean-burning, cost-effective, useable energy.
Landfills are the largest human-made methane source in the United States. Methane is produced as trash decomposes. When released into the air, it is a greenhouse gas and contributes to local smog conditions.
BMW's landfill gas-to-energy project will reduce carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to driving 105 million miles per year, or more than 4,000 times around the Earth. The project will also recover sufficient energy to heat the equivalent of 15,000 homes per year.
To utilize the gas, a 9.5-mile pipeline was built from the landfill to BMW Manufacturing. Construction on the Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project began in July 2002 and was completed in December 2002.
BMW's partners in this multimillion dollar project are Ameresco Energy Services and Waste Management Inc. Ameresco designed, built, and owns the pipeline, gas processing, and gas compression facilities as well as manages the overall operations of the project. The company's project experience includes energy conservation activities with Fortune 500 aerospace and automotive manufacturers, public and private school systems, state and municipal governments, large universities, and government agencies.
"We are very excited to support BMW in meeting its energy and environmental goals through this renewable energy project," said George Sakellaris, Ameresco president and CEO. "This project means cleaner air, a healthier environment, and a better community for all."
Waste Management, which owns and operates the Palmetto Landfill, has been developing landfill gas-to-energy projects for more than 15 years and currently supplies landfill gas to 69 gas-to-energy projects in 21 states.
"Landfill gas represents an important source of renewable energy," said Barry Caldwell, Waste Management senior vice president of government affairs and corporate communications. "Waste Management was a pioneer in landfill gas recovery and reuse programs, and our affiliation with BMW and Ameresco on this project is more evidence of how harnessing this resource for energy can help the environment and provide a valuable fuel."
Caldwell contined, "Our commitment to capturing and using landfill gas has helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our landfills by 50 percent. Primarily as a result of our methane gas recovery projects, Waste Management has become one of the largest private holders of greenhouse gas emissions reduction credits in the U.S."
http://www.enn.com/news/2003-05-21/s_4473.asp
Yup. That article is in my bookmarks. Hard to believe it was published in the NYTimes almost 8 years ago.
We don't need any more golf courses around here. You can't live on "recovered" landfill land. You can't grow anything on it. I don't think that the land could be used for any kind of building.
You can pasture various animals on it.
Don't look now----but--Polar Fleece is made from plastic bottles. I have always wondered if your Polar Fleece jacket would melt onto you in a fire.
He'd have to, if it were on a landfill site.
Not really. It would be capped with clay. Then there would be dirt on top of the clay capable of supporting ground cover, e.g., grass. The gas would be piped off to be turned into energy.
I'm conservative as they come but I have no problem with recyling.
Sorry, but you are as liberal as Ted Kennedy.
Sorry to burst your bubble but I'm not a liberal and I don't belong to the friends of the earth etc etc. . Very far from it. I just have no problem with reclycling.
I know many friends who I KNOW are more conservative than you and they recycle.
"No, just misinformed and silly."
I wasn't actually asking you this question but thanks so much for your response.
No where on this thread did I say that I am a proponant of mandatory recycling programs. I'm not. I think they are a terrible idea.
Nowhere on this thread did I say that folks who want to live on a reclaimed waste site shouldn't be allowed to. I said I would not live on one.
As for reclaimed sites being used for parks, I can only speak from my own silly and misinformed experience. About 15 years ago I went sledding on what had been a dump site. BCFI, a waste management company, had turned one of their fills into what you may describe as a park. The stench--even in the dead of a Michigan winter--was unbearable. I grew up around livestock. The smell of a several dozen cows grazing on even a few acres doesn't compare with the smell of a dump site. Dumpsites smell like several dozen cows crammed into a windowless bathroom after having eaten beans for dinner. The snow that covered that particular landfill-turned-sledrun had completely melted within days, whereas two other sledruns in the same community remained covered with snow for weeks after. Why do you suppose that is? It couldn't possibly have been from the amount of heat being generated underground, could it?
No, of course not. That would be a silly and misinformed conclusion.
What about all the recycling done during WWII? Was that unpatriotic and liberal? Guess so according to your book.
Don't hold your breath.
The operative word here being if. If that were to happen, I would continue to live in my 1600 square foot, double-mortgaged, 113 year old shack on my postage stamp piece of property. I'd rather smell lindens and roses than decomposing trash.
No, of course not. If you want to do it, great! That's your perogative. I am talking about when cities mandate that you will recycle.
It is my opinion that much of this type of legislation is a result of pagan or "new age" influences in our culture.
Here is a good article I found that explains what I am trying to say: Click Here
Here is a quote form the article, "A basic belief of the New age is the mother earth is the goddess Gaia. She is alive and we are killing her. She gave birth to us and we are destroying our own mother. Conservative Christians are the worst offenders".
My contention is that recycling is akin to a sacrement in the Christian religion.
A.Patriot
We are living in different times than 300 years ago or even 50 years ago. Today the US is being overpopulated from illegal aliens etc.
Do you want a landfill in your backyard thereby reducing your home's price by 50-60%.
The reason I'm for recycling is I live out in the country and we get all the city liberals crap(literally) and their garbage.
AND we were told to wash out the containers to be recycled--that's water being wasted.
Ha HA HA it was SUCH a hoot when they first instituted the recycling--they sent out TWO huge trucks to do the route, which used to be done by ONE! Extra pollution and consumption!
AND what about people getting cut messing with all this garbage and having to get stitches--that's a drain on the medical system!
It's just a ploy--recycling is meaningless!!! They just want you to suffer through doing it so you will buy less recyclables in the first place!!! It is totally 100% ANTICAPITALISM.
Plus it is job security for all those dudes and dudettes who majored in Environmental Science at the state college.
Thanks for responding...I didn't actually think that you meant that. I'm completely against mandated recycling, unless the voters of a community decide that its best for them and are well informed of every aspect of recycling programs. Folks who do think of recycling as something sacramental give me the willies, frankly. They remind me of old ladies with 200 cats. Pack rat syndrome. They don't actually recycle. They keep bags of garbage in their basements, closets, garages, sheds, along the side of the house..."...but I'm saving Mother Nature!" Blah, blah. They're crazy. We have voluntary recycling in our community so I just recycle the regular stuff curbside. We donate our old tennis shoes so the soles can be recycled into game courts. I set things like cereal boxes and egg cartons aside because my kids use them for crafts. All this we do because we choose to, not because we're told to.
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