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Resource Recovery Facilities At resource recovery facilities, garbage is pro- cessed to create a fuel to be burned at electricity generating plants. Garbage is dumped on a tipping floor. Workers do a sight inspection and remove items that cannot be processed such as appliances and tires. Those items are separated out and shipped elsewhere for proper disposal. Bulky items that cannot be easily processed such as mattresses and furniture as also set aside. Occasionally they will be processed, but most of the time they are sent to landfills for disposal. 4 _ ,�, -"'`� � 4 =.: �F:�"!� ^ . �2 -+�-�: �� °'�" � �' �',;, - �_ - ��-�' ;� � _ ,� �. � - -� � �. •�* � k W' �� y � , � � ',� , i� �' . ` . �,.. ;�,�,ir'"'i"�-�.,. �.�: �. . � .� �-� _ , The Resource Recovery Facility in Newport The waste is then run through processing lines where ferrous metals (iron and steel) and alumi- num are removed for recycling. The rest of the material (typically paper and similar products with a high BTU value) is processed into smaller pieces for easier shipping and burning. This end product is called refuse derived fuel (RDF). It costs about $20 more a ton to process garbage through a resource recovery facility than through a landfill. Thus tipping fees are higher. But Minnesota resource recovery facilities use govern- ment subsidies to make tipping fees cost competitive. Roseville and the Resource Recovery Facility All haulers in Ramsey County are required to send at least a portion of the garbage they collect to the Resource Recovery Facility in Newport. In 1986, Ramsey and Washington Counties entered into a twenty-year Service Agreement with Northern States Power Company (now NRG Energy, Inc., a subsidiary of the newly renamed Xcel Energy). This obligation is passed along to resi- dents as part of the solid waste management fee on residents' property tax bills. The purpose of the Facility is to minimize the counties' dependence on landfills (meeting the State hierarchy and County goals) by processing waste into RDF. This fuel is burned in place of coal at NRG power plants in Red Wing and Mankato. Trash is not a fossil fuel thus burns cleaner than coal as it contains no sulfur, a major contributor to acid rain. Of the 395,459 tons of waste that was delivered from Ramsey and Washington Counties to the facility in 2000: • 77% was processed into fuel • 3% was ferrous metal that was recovered and recycled • 20% was material that was landfilled because it could not be recovered for fuel or recy- cling. The RDF produced in 2000 generated enough electricity to serve about 28,000 homes for one year. The four small haulers that serve Roseville residents take all the trash they collect to the RRF. While the large four have been taking much of their trash to out of state landfills. BFI owns Lake Area Disposal in southwest Washburn County in Wisconsin (as well as Pine Bend Landfill in 39