More than 80 percent of plastics in the U.S. ended up as part of municipal solid waste in landfill between 2008 and 2011. The report shows that every ton of this waste that is combusted in a waste-to-energy plant replaces half a ton of coal. Diversion from landfill to waste-to-energy could reduce coal mining in the U.S. by about 100 million tons per year.
U.S. waste could power 13.8 million homes
A report by Columbia University claims that there is great potential to increase energy drawn from waste in the U.S.
