A Reality Check on Renewable Energy from the

Combustion of Municipal Solid Waste

Today's congressional proposals to mandate the use of renewables have won significant public support because renewables are widely viewed as environmentally benign and largely "free." As the following facts and observations illustrate, reality is more sobering.

NGSA has collected these statements from a wide variety of studies and reports to help Congress and the public more clearly understand the costs and the risks of using renewables. While these reports have not been endorsed or sponsored by NGSA, they illustrate a broad base of concern about mandated use of renewable fuels.

Cost

Municipal solid waste is frequently processed before incineration to avoid wide temperature fluctuations (when pockets of glass or plastic are burned) and damage to equipment (for instance, from large pieces of metal).² This adds to costs.

Municipal solid waste generation costs are estimated at 10.2 -18 cents per kilowatt hour, including the permitted accelerated depreciation, which acts as a tax subsidy.² Without this subsidy, costs would be higher.

The potential for new municipal solid waste capacity is limited given that 40 percent of all municipal solid waste is already incinerated or recycled.²

Tire incineration can be attractive economically because tires have a far higher heat content than municipal solid waste in general and because incineration is considered an attractive alternative to 1) inclusion of tires in landfills, where they tend to rise and pop through the surface as other waste compacts around them, and 2) tire piles that can serve as mosquito breeding grounds. Given U.S. tire use, however, the maximum sustainable tire capacity is about 500 megawatts--not enough to contribute significantly to U.S. power needs.²

While in theory the collection and burning of all landfill gas could substitute for five percent of today's consumption of natural gas or one percent of total U.S. energy demand, high costs (4.58 cents per kilowatt hour) result from the need to process the gas to remove water and other contaminants. Additionally, production falls as the facility ages.²

Plastics have up to 400 percent more heat content than municipal solid waste as a whole. When plastics are removed for recycling, the value of the waste for power production declines.²

Environment

Facilities located near waste-generating population centers are frequently opposed by citizens objecting to the resulting air pollution. Controlling the pollution can add costs that degrade the cost-benefits of municipal solid waste generation.

Heavy concentrations of metals in municipal solid waste residues mean that, when ash is placed in a landfill with mildly acidic conditions that promote movement (leaching) of cadmium and lead, it is classified as a hazardous material.²

Tire incineration tends to produce sulfur in excess of amounts permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency. Tire incineration also produces zinc, cobalt, benzoapyrene, benzene, and lead.²

Ash from tire-burning equal to five percent of the original tire weight must be disposed of in landfills.²

Transporting tires can result in the spread of mosquitoes. In one widely-publicized case, a shipment of tires from Asia to the U.S. brought along the Asian Tiger mosquito, suspected of spreading encephalitis. Tire-shredding prior to shipment solves this problem but adds to costs.²

References

¹ Pimentel et al., "Renewable Energy: Economic and Environmental Issues," BioScience, Sept. 1994.

² Resource Data International, "Energy Choices in a Competitive Era: The Role of Renewable and Traditional Energy Resources in America's Electric Generation Mix," April 1995, released by the Center for Energy and Economic Development (an arm of the coal industry). Available at <http://www.conx.com/ceed/elecgenmix/default.html>.

³ Center for Energy and Economic Development, response to the National Renewables Energy Laboratory's comments on Resource Data International's "Energy Choices in a Competitive Era: The Role of Renewable and Traditional Energy Resources in America's Electric Generation Mix," November 1995. Available at <http://www.conx.com/ceed/elecgenmix/default.html>.

⁴ Robert L. Bradley, Jr., "Renewable Energy -- Why Renewable Energy Is Not Cheap and Not Green," released by the National Center for Policy Analysis, Summer 1997. Available at <http://www.public-policy.org/~ncpa/studies/renew/renew.html>.

⁵ National Petroleum Council, The Potential for Natural Gas in the United States, (report to the Secretary of Energy), December 1992.

⁶ National Center for Policy Analysis, materials related to the 1997-98 national high school debate on renewables policy, Summer 1997. Available at <http://www.public-policy.org/~ncpa>.

⁷ Statistical Abstract of the United States 1993, Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1993.

⁸ Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, Annual Energy Outlook 1997. Available at http://www.eia.doe.gov/fueloverview.html#forecasts.

⁹ Charles Bragg, "Conservation Notes," Newsletter of the Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society, December 1995. Available at http://www.audubon.org/chapter/ca/santamonicabay/V19N4.HTM#conservation.

¹⁰ Keith Axelson, "Do the Blades Go Deasil...or Widdershins...or Does It Really Make Any Difference?" Newsletter of the Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society, May 1995. Available at <http://www.audubon.org/chapter/ca/santamonicabay/v18n8.htm#Do The Blades>.

¹¹ Herbert Inhaber, "Energy Conservation is a Waste," Wall Street Journal, July 28, 1997.

¹² Public Citizen, "State-By-State Survey Shows Renewable Energy Use Expanding Rapidly," April 18, 1995. Available at <http://www.citizen.org/CMEP/renewables/renproj.html>.

This page was last updated September 9, 1997.