Alter NRG is committed to integrating energy recovery from waste facilities into the waste management process. Before waste is gasified, recycling or waste diversion is always the initial step in waste management. Plasma gasification complements a well-developed waste diversion program by converting the remaining waste into useable energy and also capturing renewable resources such as:

• Water
• Ferrous and non-ferrous metal
• Sulphur

United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Support of Energy Recovery from Waste Energy

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has recently acknowledged combustion with energy recovery (which is how the EPA refers to energy recovery from waste) as preferable to landfilling. The EPA recommends that after efforts are made to reduce, reuse, and recycle, waste should be sent to waste-to-energy plants where the volume of trash will be reduced by 90%, the energy content of the waste will be recovered, and clean renewable electricity will be generated.  The EPA’s hierarchy reflects what the EPA has stated previously–that the nation’s energy recovery from waste plants produce electricity with "less environmental impact than almost any other source of electricity."

 (Source: Integrated Waste Service Association, "The EPA Solid Waste Management Hierarchy.")

Communities with WTE facilities are likely to have higher recycling rates than the national average. Far from competing with recycling, WTE is part of an integrated approach to solid waste management that includes recycling as a core component. The average recycling rate for WTE communities across the US is 33%, while the national average is 28%.

Integrated Waste Services Association