Resource Recovery Facility: Integrated Waste Management

Montgomery County advocates an integrated, comprehensive approach to solving the solid waste crisis.

No single technique can fully address a community's solid waste management needs. However, when combined into a comprehensive system, these disposal methods can reduce the volume of trash, stabilize disposal costs, improve environmental safety, conserve natural resources and provide new energy sources.

This integrated strategy is comprised of four interdependent components: Reduction/Reuse, Recycling, Waste-to-Energy, and Landfilling

Waste Reduction & Reuse

What does waste reduction/reuse mean?

Waste reduction/reuse refers to any process which lessens the creation of waste at its source. Packages which use less material, products manufactured in concentrated form, reuse of scrap paper as note pads and reusable containers are just a few examples of waste reduction.

Why is waste reduction/reuse important?

Waste reduction/reuse helps prevent materials from becoming trash in the first place. Waste reduction/reuse programs can also help prevent potential toxins such as mercury and lead from entering the waste stream. Consumers can contribute significantly to waste reduction and reuse efforts by making wise purchasing decisions and reusing materials before discarding them.

Recycling

What role does recycling play?

Recycling is the reprocessing of materials such as glass, metals, paper and plastic for reuse.

Communities can foster successful recycling programs by identifying and cultivating reliable markets for recyclables and encouraging the active participation of both residents and businesses. In addition, waste reduction and recycling efforts can also be an effective means of diverting toxic components from the waste stream.

Montgomery County implements a comprehensive recycling program. To learn even more about recycling, please visit our Recycling Center and Recycling sections.

Isn't recycling alone enough to solve a community's waste management problems?

No single waste management method can handle the entire waste stream. Simply collecting materials is not recycling. Once collected, recyclables must be bundled, processed, manufactured into usable materials and eventually resold. This cycle can be expensive and reliable markets for recyclable materials are not always in place. In addition, environmental impacts result from some recycling processes, as well as from trucking materials from point-to-point within the cycle. Both economic and environmental impacts must be considered.

Before launching a recycling program, a community must examine the composition of the waste stream and assess the benefits of recycling versus alternative management techniques for each component.

Does the inherent recyclability of certain materials make them better suited to recycling?

Yes. Many communities are having great success with recycling of aluminum cans, glass containers, and iron and steel. These materials are particularly well-suited to recycling, and they are of no energy value when processed in the County's waste-to-energy facility.

However, iron and steel that is not recovered before going to the County's waste-to-energy facility is recovered from the ash by a large magnet. It is then sold and recycled into new products.

Waste-to-Energy

Waste-to-energy or Resource Recovery?

Waste-to-energy facilities recover the energy that is inherent in municipal solid waste and uses that energy as a renewable resource to generate electricity or steam power. Some facilities utilize their ash as an alternative to dirt fill used as cover material in landfills. Therefore, waste-to-energy is a form of resource recovery.

In Montgomery County, we also recover ferrous metal (iron and steel) from the ash and sell it to be recycled into new products. Therefore, we call our facility the Resource Recovery Facility.

The fine ash is used as an alternative to dirt fill for daily cover at landfills. Aggregate in the ash is separated out and used as road base material in landfill cells.

What does waste-to-energy add to the mix?

By combusting solid waste at extremely high temperatures, waste-to-energy facilities generate power in the form of electricity or steam. This high efficiency combustion reduces the volume of delivered waste by 90% or more, and thus helps communities conserve landfill capacity.

Do waste-to-energy facilities compete with recycling programs?

No. In fact, in Montgomery County and in hundreds of communities across the country, waste-to-energy has proved compatible with recycling. Glass and metals have no energy value and absorb energy which could otherwise go towards making steam or electricity. Some of the highest recycling rates in the U.S. are found in communities with waste-to-energy facilities. Montgomery County currently recycles more than 44% of its waste before going to the Resource Recovery Facility, and we are working to reach a goal of 50% by the year 2010.

Do other nations use waste-to-energy and recycling in concert?

Yes. In fact, both waste-to-energy and recycling work hand-in-hand in many industrialized nations. Japan, for example, has been recycling for over a century and far surpasses any other nation in its efforts. Yet, it combusts about 70% of the waste that remains after recycling.

The nations of The Netherlands and Denmark are also noted for their recycling achievements, and each combusts about 40% and 60% of its total waste, respectively. These statistics clearly demonstrate that a tremendous amount of combustible material remains even after the most aggressive recycling.

Can potential adverse environmental impacts of combusting certain materials justify recycling?

Household hazardous waste programs can recover products such as mercury, elecronics, switches, paint and batteries that are primary sources of heavy metals. Yard trim and grass clippings generate high NOx emissions when burned, which would require the consumption of natural resources to remove. Preventing emissions that would have resulted from combusting them can justify diverting them from waste-to-energy plants. Communities must choose diversion methods carefully, however, since potential pollutants can also be released during the storage and processing of some recyclable materials. The comprehensive, integrated approach should be considered.

Landfilling

Are landfills still a viable option for waste management?

Landfills equipped with proper liners and leachate and gas collection systems are an essential element of an integrated plan. Such landfills provide safe disposal of non-recyclable and non-combustible waste, as well as waste-to-energy ash that is not recycled.

How much landfill space can a waste-to-energy facility save?

By recycling and using a waste-to-energy facility, consumption of landfill space can be reduced to 90% or more. In Montgomery County, we landfill approximately 5% of the solid waste volume generated.

Resource Recovery Facility

• Resource Recovery Facility home
• General information
• Map / Schedule a tour
• Online tour
• Environmental issues
• Studies/ Assessments of RRF operations
• Emissions chemistry
• Emissions data
• Weather data

• Facilities home
  
  
• Recycling Center
• Solid Waste Transfer Station
• Resource Recovery Facility
• Compost Facility
• Landfill Operations
• Waste Disposal