From Sheriff Joe to the rejection of Chicano Studies courses, I spend more time cringing and even yelling about what the state does than anything else. (No offense to any of you reading this that are from Arizona... I have friends there, so I know that not everyone follows that mentality.)
You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that one city within the state of Arizona was doing something progressive and important. Something that makes me smile.
What am I talking about?
Trash-to-energy.
Abengoa, an engineering company based in Spain, is looking to build a trash-to-energy plant in Glendale, AZ.
"Chicago-based power company Vieste Energy will own the planned factory, and Abengoa will build it and run it for 30 years. Construction will take 20 months, and create 50 jobs, says Abengoa. When fully built, the factory is supposed to be able to gasify 180,000 tons of garbage per year, produce 350 tons of gas per day, and create 15 MW of electricity." (source)Wow!
Those of you that know about the whole trash-to-energy thing are probably saying,
"So what? We already have those in the U.S.
Arizona is doing absolutely nothing new."
Arizona is doing absolutely nothing new."
And you'd almost be right.
There's a difference between this proposed plant and others in the United States, however. The trash-to-energy plants in this country all convert organics into energy. This one, though... This one converts plastic to energy, as well.
Score!
Imagine. If the plans go through and this facility is built, they'll be converting 180,000 tons of garbage into gas per year. They'll be creating jobs. They'll be helping to solve a major environmental problem.
I'm not seeing anything negative in this. Rather, I'm seeing something truly amazing. What am I missing in this?
Am I missing anything... or is this just as wonderful as I think it is?
Information gathered via Washington Post
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