North Texas City Creates World’s First Eco-Friendly Landfill

Hopefully this becomes a trend that goes worldwide.

The residents of Denton, Texas are happy about their landfill. Which I think is the first time anyone has been excited about a landfill in in their town. The landfill is the first of it's kind, that uses a mining technique. It involves going through a long-established tip to find metals, plastics and other goods that can be re-sold, to create a sustainable waste disposal system.

The city uses wastewater and pumps it into the rubbish filled plots of land. It speeds up the decomposition of the organic waste. Remember all the metal, plastics and inorganic materials have been removed. This decomposition creates a methane gas, that is then funneled into a generator. That generator provides electricity to 1,600 Denton residents.

According to DTE's website, the amount of "greenhouse gas emissions destroyed annually at the Denton project are equivalent to removing the emissions from approximately 11,610 passenger vehicles from the road each year".

The city plans to upgrade the generator and equipment soon. They say the new equipment could provide electricity to as many as 4,000 residents. Not only is this new landfill technique better for the environment, it can also make a landfill profitable. Instead of just stuffing a landfill to capacity, you can now use the landfill to benefit the city.