Welcome to WTERT :: Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology Council


	Recent News

The Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, in conjunction with the Frederick County Division of Utilities and Solid Waste Management and Carroll Country Department of Public Works, has selected Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. as the preferred vendor to construct and operate a new, regional Waste-to-Energy facility that will serve the solid waste disposal and energy needs of Frederick and Carroll Counties

Waste-to-Energy was identified as one of eight emerging green technologies according to a report released January 29 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

Covanta Energy plans to Build an Approximately $575 Million Plant to Convert Waste-to-Energy in Wales (UK)
Waste & Recycling News: Wheelabrator to Build First U.S. Waste-to-Energy Facility
The Senate Finance Committee approved, with a 14-9 vote, a stimulus package that includes a two-year extension of the production tax credit for waste-to-energy and other renewables
EPA’s Office of Solid Waste has changed its name to the Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, in order to reflect its heightened focus on conserving resources and recycling waste material
The News & Observer: Waste-to-Energy, A 21st Century Solution
Newly appointed U.S. Senator Kristen Gillebrand (D-NY) wrote an op-ed this week in the Poughkeepsie Journal citing waste-to-energy as a tool in developing a “green” economy in the Hudson Valley of New York

The House Ways and Means Committee yesterday approved a bill that would extend the production tax credit for new waste-to-energy capacity and other renewables for an additional three years

The U.S. Senate confirmed President Barack Obama's nominees to lead U.S. EPA and the White House Council on Environmental Quality

Waste Management World: New WTE Plant in Guadeloupe
Investing in Garbage would Help this Down-in-the-Dumps Economy, according to the Palm Beach County Solid Waste Authority

Islip, NY is planning to expand the MacArthur Waste-to-Energy facility, potentially tripling the size of its facility, enough to generate enough energy for 18,000 homes by 2015, said Supervisor Phil Nolan

The Ocala (FL) County Commission this week voted 3-2 to begin looking for a company to build and operate a Waste-to-Energy incinerator that can handle 400 tons of trash a day while the county also develops a "fallback" plan for a new landfill

Solar Meets Polar as Winter Curbs Clean Energy
The New York Times
December 2008 Correspondence of Prof. Themelis with World Health Organization (WHO) on subject of Incinerator Dioxin Emissions
Crash in Trash Creates Mountains of Unwanted Recyclables in U.S.
Carbon Footprint and Renewable Energy Contribution of Waste-to-Energy across Europe
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for Waste-to-Energy plants within Europe
by Jan L.C. Manders
Professor Steve Cohen's Blog in The New York Observer: Wasted Again: What Can We Do With All of That Garbage?
Back at Junk Value, Recyclables Are Piling Up
The New York Times

The Dioxin Emissions Limit for an EFW Plant
New Report Urges Government to Stop the ‘Cover-Up’ and prevent Planet Earth from Becoming One Big Dumping Ground
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Contribution of Waste-to-Energy Plants to National Dioxin Emissions in Europe
The Boston Globe: Waste-to-Energy can be Sound Policy
MA Dep Stakeholder Meeting – New Solid Waste Master Plan
Boston MA, December 9, 2008
Waste-To-Energy, an Important Technology to Convert our Wastes to Alternate Energy
Presented to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Solid Waste Master Plan meeting, Boston, MA. December 9, 2008 by Jack D. Lauber, PE BCEE
Cities Give Waste-to-Energy Plants a Second Look
Article in The Wall Street Journal, December 6, 2008
State Recycling Organization Names Meg Morris a Top Recycler
Margretta “Meg” Morris has been a member of the Earth Engineering Center's Public Speakers Group prior to joining Covanta
Resource Recovery Technologies (RRT)
Is this the Time for the U.S. to be Wasting Energy?
A presentation by Mr. John Williams from HDR Engineering at public session of WTERT 2008 meeting on October 17
A Letter from Professor Nickolas J. Themelis to the Editor of The Boston Globe
One of the WTERT papers presented at the Global Waste Management Symposium at Copper Mountain, Colorado (September 2008) received the GWMS 2nd place award for an outstanding manuscript. The paper, by Dr. Frank Zeman, was titled "Considering Carbon Capture and Storage for Energy Generation from MSW ". Dr. Zeman was member of Columbia's Lenfest Sustainable Energy Center until this summer when he was appointed Director of the Center for Metropolitan Sustainability of the New York Institute of Technology. Prof. Zeman is a Research Associate of the Earth Engineering Center, the parent organization of WTERT and the SUR Center.
The WTERT 2008 Awards:
a) Article in Waste Management World Acknowledges Major Contributors to Global WTE
b) WTERT 2008 Nominations and Awards

INTRAKAT, S.A. of Greece, a unit of INTRACOM Holdings, one of the largest multinational technology groups in Southeastern Europe, has become a sponsor of WTERT.

Columbia University Earns Top Grade for Sustainability
Columbia is among Only 15 Schools Nationwide to Earn an A-

Von Roll Inova to Build the UK's Largest Waste-to-Energy Plant

White Paper of American Society of Mechanical Engineers to U.S. Congress: WTE is a Renewable Energy Source

The European Advancements in Electricity Production from Renewable Municipal Solid Waste

Waste-to-Energy an Important Topic to Explore
Albany Times Union, by Jack D Lauber.

The Formation of the Southwestern Biofuels Association (SWBA)
A progressive trade association promoting the development of renewable biofuels in New Mexico and throughout the Southwest.

Jack D. Lauber's Talk about WTE on WGY Eco Radio Program
August 3, 2008

One Man's Trash Could be an Energy Treasure
Trash-burning technology may be a bridge to a cleaner future, but because the process still produces some greenhouse gases, it's still igniting debate across the country. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

Nothing to Fear, and Much to Gain, from Waste-to-Energy
Letter to editor by Jack D. Lauber, July 10, 2008

Germany Picks Up Scent of Profit In Solving Naples's Trash Crisis
by Stacy Meichtry and Almut Schoenfeld, May 27, 2008

Taking out the Trash
Letter to the editor of the New York Times by Eillen Berenyi, June 14, 2008

Mr. Jack Lauber's Talk on WTE and Zero Wastes Radio Discussion
May 19, 2008

Global MSW Generation in 2007 Estimated at Two Billion Tons
by Key Note Publications Ltd, March 1, 2007

Congressman Pitts of PA speak on WTE at U.S. House of Representatives

New Web Page for WTERT-GREECE at National Technical University of Athens

Europe to build 100 waste-to-energy plants by 2012: According to research group Frost & Sullivan (Palo Alto, California), Europe's waste-to-energy market is about to experience rapid growth in the coming years, with as many as 100 new waste-incineration-with-energy-recovery plants expected to be constructed in Europe by 2012. The new plants would represent a continent-wide capacity expansion of over 14 million tons annually. The research group projects an ongoing move away from many other waste management strategies, claiming that many local and regional authorities see waste-to-energy as the only viable large-scale alternative to landfill.

From Waste to Watts: Energy Forum Conference on WTE in EU
Brussels, March 12-13, 2008
Report on China Visit
by Professor Nickolas J. Themelis
Prof. Nickolas Themelis will chair the Waste-to-Energy Session of the World Future Energy Summit to be held in Abu Dhabi, January 21-23. Prof. Themelis has also been invited to present a lecture at the Summit on the potential for energy recovery from global adoption of Waste-to-Energy technologies. Dr. Mark Kaptejn of AEB Amsterdam, one of the WTERT sponsors will also present a paper on “Value from Waste: Amsterdam’s Waste Fired Power Plant”.
The Potential of Solid Waste
by John G. Waffenschmidt
Visit of Prof. Themelis to WTE Facilities and Laboratories in Chongqing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing
Covanta Begins Operating Nation’s First Energy-from-Waste Unit under the EPA’s New Source Performance Standards
Times Union Editor
Albany NY, by Jack D. Lauber
Report of E.U. Environmental Agency on Europe's Environment: Recycling and WTE are Complementary
October 10, 2007
Purdue Scientists Develop Portable Generator that Turns Trash into Electricity
(Technology Review Article)
Making a Case: The Benefits of Waste-to-Energy
by Meg Morris & Jack Lauber
Global Growth of Traditional and Novel Thermal Treatment Technologies
by Nickolas J. Themelis
WROW Fred Dicker Radio Show on WTE Issues in MN vs NY State
by Jack Lauber
WTE-25 Years Later: Technology with a Past, Present, and Future
by John F. Williams, senior vice president of HDR
Waste not...,
by Patrick Moore
Environmental Movement Has Lost Its Way
by Dr. Patrick Moore
Waste-to-Energy: Towards Recovery
Press release by CEWEP
EPA 2005 MSW Reports Differentiate Between WTE and Landfilling
Britain’s Waste: The Lessons we can Learn from Europe
by Caroline Jackson MEP (Press Release)
Waste Not, Spitzer should Focus on Turning Garbage into Renewable Energy
by Alyssa A. Lappen and Jack D. Lauber
Turning Waste into Energy beats Landfilling
by Christopher Hume, Nov. 16, 2006
Review of U.K. Publication "A Changing Climate for Energy from Waste?"
by Prof. Nickolas J. Themelis
Integrated Waste Management in Sweden
by Magnus Schonning
Landfill Disamenities and Better Utilization of Waste Resources
by Jack Lauber (presentation to Wisconsin Governor’s Task Force, May 10, 2006)
Jack Lauber's WI NPR Radio Talk
May 10, 2006
Don't Let Connecticut's Trash Plants Go Private
by Jonathan Bilmes
Recovering “Waste” from “WTEs”?
from The Economist print edition
German Company Offers to Transform Sofia Waste to Energy
New York Looks to the Future of Waste
by Sam Bond
The Burning Issue
by Alyssa A. Lappen and Jack D. Lauber
Covanta Announces Contracts for Lee County, Florida Waste-to-Energy Facility Expansion
Waste to Energy: Time to Reconsider?
by Amy Eddings (WNYC)
Who's the Cleanest of them All?
by Prof. Nickolas J. Themelis, Waste Management World, July-August 2005
Thermal Treatment Options
by A. J. Griffiths and K. P. Williams
County looks at Turning Waste Ash into Money
by Daina Klimanis, The York Dispatch
Burning Waste for Energy
ATHENS NEWS, Jul 15, 2005, page: A06. An interview of ATHENS NEWS with Prof. Nickolas J. Themelis on the problems of waste management in Greece.
Quantification of the Potential Energy from Residuals in the UK
by the British Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the Renewable Power Association (RPA). This report shows the huge potential for greater generation of energy from waste in the UK.
Worming up to Composting in Montreal
by Yannis Themelis (EEC Jr. Associate)
The Burning Issues of Municipal Solid Waste Disposal
by Jack D. Lauber, PEDEE; Chief of Technology Assessment (retired), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; invited presentation at the Toronto City Council Municipal Solid Waste Conference: Advances in Processes and Programs, May 12, 2005.
Trash and the City: Toward a Cleaner, more Equitable Waste Transfer System in Manhattan
EDF study by Cruz, Outerbridge, and Tripp
Thinking Twice about the Garbage
New York Times article, April 23, 2005
Taniguchi, Architect of Museum of Modern Art, also of Japan's Newest Waste-to-Energy Facility
Philadelphia Rolling Out New Recycling Program
Recycling Today article, by Scott Kaufman, Jr. Research Associate of EEC, Collaborating in Novel Recycling-Advancing Program
A Joint Study with the Earth Engineering Center
BioCycle, January 2004
It's Your Garbage. Pay for It.
New York Times Editorials/Op-Ed, by Stephen Hammer and Benjamin Miller
New York City's Dirty Secret: The Trash Crisis

No American city has more garbage than New York City, or more trouble getting rid of it. Ever since 2001, when New York City closed its only landfill--Fresh Kills--the city has been grappling with a growing garbage crisis. We spend a day in the life of two sanitation workers, then follow the garbage on its odyssey through indoor dumps all around New York City, down the highways and byways of the eastern seaboard, and to its final destination--most often--landfills in Pennsylvania.

Life After Fresh Kills: A Technology-Policy Joint Study on the NYC Waste Management System
December 2001

School of International and Public Affairs