I was reading an article in the Economist, entitled, "A rubbish business model." Rather than simply using the methane from landfills, the concept discussed was to convert the waste itself into fuel. The article describes a company called Startech Environmental that uses "plasma conversion, superheating rubbish to break down its molecular bonds and create a 'synthesis gas' which is then converted into ethanol or biodiesel." There are several ways to convert waste into fuel, such as gasifying trash by heating it and converting it into synthesis fuel, which is then placed into "the Fischer-Tropsch" process. The Nazis actually used this technique to convert coal into fuel during World War II. Another way of using this process is to break down cellulose and produce ethanol from the decomposing organic plant residue. The difficulty, according to the article, is that household garbage isn't a neat compost of organic material but a mixture of God knows what. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) claims that there really is no effective way to convert household waste for a profit into ethanol or another fuel. The NRDC further notes that because many people do not recycle items that could be recycled, turning garbage into fuel may not be much of a gain for the environment. In my opinion, however, it would be better to make energy from otherwise wasted materials, even if the pros of recycling outweigh the benefits of this process.

Startech also feels there are merits to the garbage to fuel process, as there are almost no emissions with its fuel-making operation and only a fraction of the resulting energy is consumed by the conversion process. Currently, however, Startech's plan is still somewhat in the theoretical stage, as there are no backers right now to convert 10 tons of waste per day into fuel. Yet, I would not give up hope on Startech yet, as one brave backer could spawn a craze of many. The article further notes that Startech is far ahead of other companies with similar concepts, because Startech at least has a demonstration plant. Other companies, like Masada Resource Group and Green Power, have no demonstration plants, despite grandiose plans to convert garbage into fuel. In fact, Green Power claims it can even make oil from waste with 90% efficiency. Yet, when its CEO was convicted of fraud in Austria, many discounted the truth of these statistics.

Changing World Technologies is a company that does run a commercial plant, converting materials like turkey slaughterhouse waste and pig fats into fuel. This material could be refined into biodiesel. The downside is that it costs the company $80 a barrel to make the fuel.

Just like with other methods to produce ethanol and biodiesel, the trash to fuel concept has some current downsides, namely not being all the efficient right now. Yet, as with other technology, demand will lead to improvements and more efficient output. If we could someday run our cars on our household garbage, so long as the emissions were controlled, we would be eliminating some of our waste disposal problems and increasing our fuel availability. As long as humans are on the planet, garbage will always be a renewable resource.