In 1991, Pasco County closed its traditional landfill and switched to a waste-to-energy facility.
Shady Hills is an 800-acre, county-owned waste management facility. Its incinerator can process 1,050 tons of garbage a day. That means each year, Shady Hills can process up to 326,000 tons of waste, enough to power more than 15,000 homes.
Better still, Pasco earns approximately $15 million a year from energy sales through a partnership with Progress Energy, and that revenue could grow to $30 million by 2024. It’s a win-win: The community gets power, your trash is turned into a resource, and no fossil fuels are consumed in the process.
Another advantage is that the volume of trash is decreased by up to 90 percent. All that’s left is ash – and ash can be recycled. Coupled with the state-of-the art air scrubbers, Pasco residents get all the benefit with assurance that public health is protected.
Of course, there’s always room for improvement in the program, and Pasco County officials are always exploring ways to make its waste-to-energy program better.