Rogue Waste, Inc.'s Bold New Vision

Abstract

In 2011, Rogue Waste, Inc. announced a forward-thinking plan to achieve a greater level of energy independence and contribute to the next level of air quality improvement for the Rogue Valley. This bold new vision will take years to realize and requires multiple investments and milestones along the way — including fleet conversion to CNG, the gas-to-energy facility and the Rogue Clean Fuels CNG station. But one day in the future, the trucks that pick up the weekly trash and recycling will be powered by the naturally occurring biogas produced at the landfill by decomposing garbage.

Investing in a system to use naturally occurring landfill Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) into a cleaner-burning fuel source

When the organic materials in solid waste decompose, they create a biogas that can be refined to produce RNG. This fuel can be used by vehicles that run on natural gas. In fact, anything that uses natural gas — including homes and businesses — can use RNG.

Wells installed at Dry Creek Landfill capture biogas from decomposing trash. Today, this biogas is used to create electricity at the Rogue Waste gas-to-energy facility. In the future, this biogas will be cleaned, conditioned and turned into RNG. Once the system becomes fully operational, it will transform organic waste into a renewable fuel for commercial vehicles.

In order to take advantage of Renewable Natural Gas, we first have to build the infrastructure to support and create local market demand for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). CNG produces far less greenhouse gas pollutants than petroleum-based fuels. But it is still a fossil fuel that has to be extracted from the ground. Landfill biogas-derived RNG, on the other hand, is a renewable energy source that boasts a huge reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by recycling carbon that’s already in the atmosphere. Investing in the biogas capture system at the landfill and the CNG fueling station brings Rogue Waste, Inc. one step closer to the vision of a comprehensive “closed loop” solid waste system.

The bold new vision outlined here is known as a closed loop system — one that provides clean and renewable energy. Explore the closed loop in this interactive graphic.