JOHN DAVIS: The ultimate goal of recycling is to find a beneficial use for all of the stuff we use and discard every day. We already know that paper, plastics and metals can be repurposed into new consumer products. Well, America’s largest landfill operator recently showed us how organic waste matter is being used to create sustainable, clean energy for our homes and vehicles.

WM, formerly known as Waste Management, operates more than 250 landfills across North America, and they handle the recycling and waste collection needs for over 21 million commercial, residential, and industrial customers each year.

One common element in every landfill is the natural production of landfill gas, primarily made up of methane and CO2, as all of that yard debris, dirty diapers, and food waste decomposes over time. Modern landfills are constructed to bring that gas to the surface through a series of wells and pipes. The excess gas would typically be burned off with flares to help control odors, prevent air pollution and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in order to meet environmental regulations.

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But a more beneficial use for landfill gas is to reclaim it as a locally-sourced clean fuel. WM has been capturing landfill gas for over four decades, but in recent years, has invested over a billion dollars in technology to remove the CO2 and other impurities from landfill gas, and create what is called renewable natural gas. RNG is chemically identical to fossil-derived conventional natural gas, and can use the same pipelines.

TARA HEMMER: So, we have 11 renewable natural gas facilities in operation today. And we’re going to bring online another 13, so we’ll have a total of 24 across North America. And when all of those are fully operational, we’ll have 20 million MMBtu’s of energy production that’s clean, reliable and renewable.

JOHN DAVIS: WM’s newest and largest RNG facility, at their Fairless Landfill near Philadelphia, will produce 3 million MMBtu’s of energy annually, enough to power 63,000 local homes every day. The amount of gas produced by each landfill will dwindle over time, but any lost volume will be replaced as with gas from new sites as they come online.

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TARA HEMMER: The peak day of landfill gas production is the last day the landfill is open for waste receipts. And then after that, we start to see landfill gas decline about 3-5% every year. So, it’s going to be producing landfill gas for many years to come.

JOHN DAVIS: WM pushes most of the RNG it produces directly into pipelines to help power local communities with clean renewable energy. But they also use a portion to fuel the nearly 13,000 natural gas trucks that make up their own U.S. collection fleet, and they’re on pace to be able to run 100% of them on RNG by 2026. Which means the truck emptying your garbage bins today can be powered by that same trash in the future, closing the loop on a truly circular clean energy solution.

TARA HEMMER: A great way to think about it is, it is free energy. It’s something that otherwise was going to be wasted, that we can now put to good use.