What is the difference between waste-to-energy and mass burn?

Hi Dasha,

Waste-to-Energy

Waste-to-energy (WTE) is when municipal solid waste is burned in a controlled environment to create steam or electricity. Through this process the volume of solid waste is reduced by about 90%.

Energy is sold to electric generating utilities which distribute it to local homes and businesses. WTE plants in the U.S. generate enough electricity to power nearly 2.3 million homes. Energy created in a WTE facility has about the same environmental impact as energy produced from natural gas, and less impact than from oil or coal plants.

Before combustion, recyclables can be removed. Each year nearly 700,000 tons of ferrous metals and more than 3 million tons of glass, metal, plastics, batteries, ash, and yard waste are separated out for recycling.

Mass Burn

Mass burn is combusting municipal solid waste without any pre-processing or separation. The resulting steam is employed for industrial uses or for generating electricity. Mass burn facilities are sized according to the daily amount of solid waste they expect to receive.

Most mass burn plants can remove non-combustible steel and iron for recycling before combustion using magnetic separation processes. Other non-ferrous metals can be recovered from the leftover ash.

More detailed information in:
http://www.kab.org/site/PageServer?pagename=waste_to_energy

Best!