Energy Recovery

Energy Recovery: An Untapped Source of Alternative Energy

America needs a comprehensive energy policy that draws on our nation’s diverse energy supplies, including energy recovery, a term covering both established as well as emerging technologies that can convert waste to energy.

Energy recovery describes processes that convert waste material into energy. "Plastics” describes thousands of kinds of materials that are products of chemistry.  Many plastics have a surprisingly high energy value – some higher than coal.  We know that some non-recycled plastics can be converted to energy – electricity, or to fuels that can be used for energy, like synthetic gas.

Unfortunately, the benefits of energy recovery are largely unknown among policymakers and regulators. We must help local, state and federal officials to acknowledge that non-recycled plastics could provide a supply of abundant, alternative energy and should be recognized as such.

Chemistry: Transforming Waste into a Valuable Energy Resource

Although recycling rates for many plastics in the U.S. are growing and must continue to do so, tons of non-recycled plastics are buried in landfills every day – wasting a valuable energy source. Non-recycled plastics, however, are being transformed right now into alternative energy in traditional waste-to-energy facilities, and advanced energy recovery technologies – like “plastics-to-oil” – could transform even more in the future.

EPA is on record saying that established waste-to-energy facilities generate electricity with “less environmental impact than almost any other source of electricity.” These facilities use municipal solid waste, which contains non-recycled plastics, to make energy by heating it to make steam. Other innovative technologies are under development to explore converting non-recycled plastics into alternative fuels.

Recovering this abundant energy complements recycling and reduces waste that would otherwise be sent to landfills. A new study from Columbia University found that if all of the non-recycled waste produced in the United States each year were recovered for energy, it could power 16.2 million homes. If all of our non-recycled plastics were converted into alternative fuels, rather than buried in landfills, they could power at least 6 million cars each year. And if those same non-recycled plastics were sent to waste-to-energy plants to be converted into electricity, they could power 5.2 million homes per year.

Our Policy Position

Our nation’s energy policy must harness all of America’s viable energy sources, including recovering energy from waste, to continue creating the innovative products and jobs our economy needs, strengthen our economy, improve our energy security and promote sustainable energy production.

• Definitions of “renewable energy” should be broadened to ensure that all municipal solid waste, not just the biomass fraction, and non-recycled plastics are covered as renewable energy sources, and both traditional waste-to-energy recovery as well as emerging thermal conversion technologies are recognized.

• Regulations and permitting processes should not discourage the establishment of new energy recovery capacity.