energy plant plans moving forward,
louis vuitton site officielCity could switch to paper bags for leaf collection next yearNEWPORT NEWS By late 2013, the city could be operating a new waste to energy plant, and requiring residents put their bagged leaves in paper bags rather than clear plastic bags.
On Friday, the city's administration announced that it will ask City Council on Oct. 9 to consider funding a $75,
sac longchamps,000 feasibility study for an anaerobic digester that could be built at the city's Denbigh composting facility.
This spring, the city received an unsolicited bid from Ohio based Quasar Energy Group to build the digester, which would take food waste,
ugg sandals, fats, oils and greases and other organic matter and convert it into energy. The energy could take several forms, such as electricity, natural gas and compressed natural gas used to power vehicles. If the digester accepts wastewater biosolids,
north face women's jackets, those could be processed and resold as liquid fertilizer.
City officials toured Quasar facility in Wooster, Ohio, in late summer to see how it all worked.
"I could not find anything that gave me pause,
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ray ban replacement lenses, the city's public works director. "It's just stunning that this method is not in more use."
Quasar operates several facilities in Ohio and New England,
sac lancel pas cher, and is looking to expand.
Fowler said the digester could also be used to convert at least a portion of residential bagged leaves into energy, which is one reason the city is looking at switching to paper bags. But Fowler said even without the digester,
jimmychoo, the city would have been moving away from plastic bags because it would save money by avoiding landfill fees and be better for the environment. The bagged leaves currently go to the landfill.
The city's fall loose leaf collection would remain unchanged, but when residents rake up yard waste prior to the late fall, they often put leaves and other organic waste into the clear plastic bags to be removed during twice monthly bulk waste pickup.
If leaves were instead placed in tall paper bags, Fowler said, the biodegradeable bags could be either be put in the digester or sent to the composting facility,
rayban, where the bags would eventually become part of the mulch and compost sold to residents and businesses.
Fowler said preliminary cost estimates show that the paper bags cost about the same as plastic bags. He said if it turned out the paper bags were significantly more expensive,
air force one, the city would examine ways to issue rebates to residents.
Councilman Rob Coleman said that as long as the paper bags were a quality product and taxpayers weren't paying more,
abercrombie and fitch, he wouldn't object to switching.
Chad Pritchett,
scarpe vans, an assistant to City Manager Neil Morgan who has been working on the Quasar project, said that when he toured the Ohio plant,
canada goose jackets, he was struck at how clean it was. It didn't smell and it was so quiet they didn't need ear plugs, he said.
"You didn't see piles of garbage lying around," said Pritchett, explaining that the organic matter brought in was immediately processed.
Pritchett said the $75,000 for the study will be refunded to the city if the city goes ahead with the project. How much it will cost, who owns the plant and how revenues would be divvied up will be the subject of future negotiations.
"The feasibility study will be similar to creating a business plan for the project," Pritchett said.
Pritchett said the city would benefit because tipping fees would be charged to businesses bringing in waste,
chi flat irons, such as a restaurant hauling food waste. In addition,
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