Managing Solid Waste in Pasco
In 1991 Pasco County closed their traditional landfill and switched to a waste-to-energy facility. Shady Hills is an 800-acre, county-owned waste management facility. This facility’s waste-to-energy incinerator system can process 1,050 tons of garbage a day. In a year, this facility can process up to 326,000 tons of waste, and turn it into power for more than 15,000 homes.
This means that the county earns $15 million a year (2007, $40M by 2024) from energy sales through a partnership with Progress Energy. It’s a win-win situation. 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 that can be recycled.
Pasco County’s recycling program includes giving residents a blue collection bag to deposit aluminum, paper and plastics. The bags are either collected twice a month or dropped off at designated locations around the county. There’s room for improvement in the program and Pasco County is looking at that right now.