Dive Brief:

• The Santiago County Landfill in Orange County, CA, burns off a thousand cubic feet of methane each minute. The gas is created by decomposing garbage.
• The wasted gas is now being targeted by Irvine-based Ener-Core, which soon will install at the landfill a new type of gas-to-electric conversion machinery.
• Ener-Core’s CEO, Alain Castro, said his firm’s technology converts waste to electricity, and makes money in the process.

Dive Insight:

In the U.S., compostable waste that goes into landfills is a largely untapped energy source. While invasive techniques used to harvest fossil fuels can damage the environment and be dangerous for workers, harvesting methane that is naturally generated from landfills lowers greenhouse emissions from landfills.