Waste Fuels Energy Production In Incinerator Plant

NEUMUENSTER, GERMANY - AUGUST 3: The coal and garbage burning power plant of Statdtwerke Nuemuenster stands behind a mound of coal August 3, 2007 in Nuemuenster, Germany. The plant, which formerly relied solely on coal, is now equipped with a specialized furnace that allows the plant to produce two-thirds of its energy with garbage, which it receives from a local garbage processing center. The center, known as a Mechanisch-Biologisch Abfallbehandlungsanlage (MBA), or Mechanical-Biological Waste Processing Center, converts 55% of the garbage it receives into high-energy fuel, which it then sends to the city's converted power plant. The plant's management cites the twofold environmental benefit of burning the garbage, namely that it prevents the emission of methane gas from the biodegradation of the garbage (methane gas is 21 times more potent at warming the earth's atmosphere than CO2), and the reduced CO2 emissions from burning the garbage rather than coal. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)