Connecticut considers new WTE options
Connecticut considers new WTE options
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Hartford, Connecticut, is home to an aging waste-to-energy (WTE) plant, which is prompting policy makers to consider what will come next.
According to a Hartford Courant online article by reporter Gregory B. Hladaky, the city’s leaders are aware they will likely face NIMBY (not in my back yard) and fiscal policy confrontation whatever path they choose.
Some one-third of all the municipal solid waste (MSW) generated in Connecticut goes to the WTE plant, which at 27 years old the Courant describes as “aging.”
According to the article, state agencies are “currently reviewing private industry proposals for creating a more modern system focusing on recycling, composting and bio-energy rather than incineration.” For any of those plans to come to fruition, however, several stakeholders and constituencies will have to reach agreement.
Marian Chertow, the director of a Yale University program on solid waste policy, is quoted in the Courant as saying, “There’s always NIMBY,” adding that people in Hartford and surrounding cities are unlikely to want a landfill, transfer station, WTE facility, anaerobic digestion (AD) facility or even a recycling plant near them. “"People make lots of waste but they don’t want to put it anywhere close by," she adds.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin says one of the options includes a new, “cleaner” facility at the 80-acre site of the current WTE site. However, that parcel of land is on Hartford’s riverfront and is considered desirable by property developers and economic development officials.
Among other considerations are a 2014 law that sets a goal of the recycling or reuse of 60 percent of the state’s MSW by 2024. Currently, of the materials brought to the Hartford WTE facility and an adjacent recycling plant, slightly more than 20 percent of it is being recycled, according to an official quoted in the article.
As proposals for a new MSW and recycling system are received, “The plan is to winnow down those proposals to just three top contenders, and release the names of the companies and details of their proposals by July or August [2016],” according to Hladaky.
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Source: Recycling Today
Connecticut considers new WTE options
<![CDATA[Hartford, Connecticut, is home to an aging waste-to-energy (WTE) plant, which is prompting policy makers to consider what will come next. According to a Hartford Courant online article by reporter Gregory B. Hladaky, the city’s leaders are aware they will likely face NIMBY (not in my back yard) and fiscal policy confrontation whatever path they choose. Some one-third of all the municipal solid waste (MSW) generated in Connecticut goes to the WTE plant, which at 27 years old the Courant describes as “aging.” According to the article, state agencies are “currently reviewing private industry proposals for creating a more modern system focusing on recycling, composting and bio-energy rather than incineration.” For any of those plans to come to fruition, however, several stakeholders and constituencies will have to reach agreement. Marian Chertow, the director of a Yale University program on solid waste policy, is quoted in the Courant as saying, “There’s always NIMBY,” adding that people in Hartford and surrounding cities are unlikely to want a landfill, transfer station, WTE facility, anaerobic digestion (AD) facility or even a recycling plant near them. “"People make lots of waste but they don’t want to put it anywhere close by," she adds. Hartford Mayor Luke…