Pinellas County, Florida -- This story is from 2014. We recently updated to move the video to a different location.
Pinellas County has teamed up with the Green Conversion System's waste to energy plant to do something they have never done before to this extent.
Burning waste to make energy.
"In January, we burned 8,000 tons of trash from the landfill here in St. Pete," said President of Green Conversion System Marc McMenamin.
The boilers have improved greatly since last January, where they only burned a fraction of that number.
The boilers have been improved so much that before January they could only take trash dumped at the plant from other areas of the county. Now they are so efficient they need even more trash to burn -- another 500 tons more.
"Twenty-five to thirty trucks a day
The trash is burned in a furnace at 2,500 degrees for 24 hours a day. The heat from the burning trash creates the steam and then the steam is channeled to the
In January, the 8,000 tons of trash from the landfill produced $94,000 to Pinellas County that the county sold to Duke Energy.
"The power we generate from that trash is enough to power 40,000 to 50,000 homes on an everyday basis," said McMenamin.
The process is also clean for the air.
"It becomes clean because we have an extensive pollution control equipment that is part if the process," explained McMenamin. "We have scrubbers. Which actually takes acid gasses out that come out of our boiler so there is a whole extensive system that meets all the requirements federal, local, DEP, that are strict requirements that we have to adhere to for pollution control."
The United States Department of Environmental Protection agency says waste-to-energy facilities produce electricity with less environmental impact than almost any other source of electricity.
"Energy recovery from waste is the conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into useable heat, electricity, or fuel through a variety of processes, including combustion, gasification,
The landfill is also being preserved by taking the trash in it and burning it.
"It extends the life of the landfill for us so future generations have more room for their trash," said McMenamin.
The
According to the DEP there are 86 facilities in 25 states that turn waste into energy in the United States. There have not been any new ones built since 1995, but those like the one in St. Petersburg have improved to handle additional waste to create even more electricity.
St. Petersburg, Florida -- Mayor Rick Kriseman and the St. PetersburgPolice Department will announce a new, innovative program they hopewill deter kids from bringing guns to schools.
In early 2013, following the success of the Department's Gun
Unlike standard police K-9 teams that are trained to perform avariety of functions, "We obtained two Labrador retrievers that arepassive, people-friendly, single-purpose dogs and trained them to searchexclusively for guns and shell casings," said Assistant Chief MelanieBevan, who spearheaded this initiative.
"To the best of our knowledge, this program is likely the only one ofits type in the nation," said Mayor Rick Kriseman, "and serves as yetanother example of our commitment to public safety and particularly thewelfare of our children."
The two Firearms Detection K-9 teams are:
St. Petersburg Police K-9 Officer Chris Ladd and his partner, Macy, achocolate Lab. Macy was donated to SPPD by Southeastern Guide Dogsafter she did not meet their criteria, yet qualified for theircareer-change program, "and became a perfect fit for our purposes,"Bevan said.
Pinellas County Schools K-9 Officer Dave Harrison and hi
An announcement about the new program will be made at 3 p.m. today at the St. Petersburg Police Department's K-9 Compound.
You may also like...
Underwater
Rollercoaster Rescue:16 stranded after ride malfunction
Car Crash
Hungry
Be my
Card Game
Sasquatch on Tour:"Dead Bigfoot" on display in Texas
Here kitty,
#ShortYellows: Florida quietly shortened yellow lights
Kittens
Popular photo galleries:
Faces of
Trayvon Martin
Hooters
Deadly
Popular Databases:
Florida Sex
R