There are about 13,091 landfills in the United States, or almost 263 for every state. Of course, some states have more, depending on their population, because the average U.S. citizen generates almost 5 pounds of trash per day – more for infants (thanks to disposable diapers and wipes) and single people, who rely on prepackaged food. Older couples and poor families produce less. In all, the total amount of garbage generated in the U.S. each year is an inconceivable 210 million tons.
Spread out over about 69,189 acres – land that could be put to better use in many cases, these landfills impact nearby populations not only with unsightly and smelly piles of rotting trash, but the potential for disease as pathogens from rotting garbage and unidentified toxic wastes leak into the water table belowground.
... the dawn of the 21st century, the remedy for trash may be plasma gasification, a waste-to-energy technology that burns trash at such high temperatures (in a unit called a reactor) that emissions are truly negligible, even when combusting toxics. (For an explanation of how a plasma gasification reactor works, read this).
The technology is complicated. Suffice to say that gases like air, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, steam and argon are ignited via a plasma torch that is both thermally and electrically conductive, making this form of gasification a natural for waste-to-energy schemes.
The final product, even when incinerating toxics, is synthesis gas, or syngas, and an inert “slag” resembling glass (as opposed to the potentially toxic ash from a standard incinerator that has to be disposed of in a hazardous waste landfill).
The syngas is burnt to create heat and/or electricity. Any metals or other valuable residues are captured for reuse. Because plasma gasification takes place in an almost 100-percent oxygen-free atmosphere, there are virtually no atmospheric releases of any kind.
