Thousands of Canberra households are set to be supplied with electricity captured through four new landfill gas generators, officially opened this week.
In a statement the Minister for Recycling and Waste Reduction, Chris Steel said 5,700 households would be supplied by the new landfill gas generators which reduce greenhouse gas emissions and generate electricity.
“Each year 140,000 tonnes of organic waste goes to landfill in the ACT, which in the anaerobic environment, turns into methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide,” Mr Steel said.
“We want to reduce and recycle organic food waste to divert it from landfill, so that we can reduce these harmful waste emissions by 30 per cent,” he said.
“However we also need to capture as much of the emissions created by other organic material that still ends up in landfill.”
Mr Steel said the new project increased the efficiency of that process, with around 15 per cent more energy generated.
“These generators allow the gas to be captured and used to create electricity to power homes and businesses, reducing emissions,” he said.
“It is estimated that the energy supplied by the landfill cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 120,000 tonnes per year.”
Mr Steel said 120,000 tonnes per year was the equivalent of removing nearly 30,000 cars from Canberra’s roads.
