Pictured here, the Xcel Energy waste-to-energy (WTO) facility on French Island, is part of the La Crosse County Solid Waste Facility, where waste that can’t be recycled is processed and burned for energy. The plant is carbon negative by 43 percent per ton of garbage when compared to landfilling that same amount of waste traditionally. (submitted photo)
By Kate Klimesh,
Pictured here, the Xcel Energy waste-to-energy (WTO) facility on French Island, is part of the La Crosse County Solid Waste Facility, where waste that can’t be recycled is processed and burned for energy. The plant is carbon negative by 43 percent per ton of garbage when compared to landfilling that same amount of waste traditionally. (submitted photo)
The number of available landfills for solid waste in the Driftless area are few and far between, in large part due to the sometimes-unstable Karst geology found throughout the area. The 1983 closure of the Houston County Landfill, due to groundwater contamination, led folks to consider other options. Those in Minnesota choose between Rochester Landfill or La Crosse Solid Waste in Wisconsin – a regional waste facility connected to a facility that turns waste into energy with heightened recycling sorting and screening capacity for a five-county area. Houston County sends their solid waste to La Crosse, which offers a wide range of reclamation of resource points all along the process, making this trash trip anything but tame.
Finding value in waste
Houston County Environmental Services Director Martin Herrick has decades of experience in the waste industry as both an inspector and member of a solid waste team. Herrick reported, “The waste hierarchy we use in Minnesota and in Wisconsin teaches us how to find value in the materials of solid waste.”
The La Crosse County Solid Waste Facility’s main objective is to reduce the toxicity of waste to the environment and minimize the impact of new waste on the 350-acre landfill and surrounding areas, with resource recovery activities conducted at the Xcel Energy waste-to-energy (WTO) facility on French Island. The resource recovery center is publicly owned and privately managed.
“First, there is source reduction and reuse of materials, and that generally is at the discretion of the manufacturers and consumers. Recycling and composting is the second tier; that includes materials being sorted and screened on the tipping floor. With recycling, the challenge can be finding markets for the materials or getting it clean for reuse.”
“What’s left, we focus on energy recovery from the materials – if it can’t be recycled, it’s possible it could be burned, so appropriate materials for energy creation, called refuse-derived fuels, are chipped and processed for burning. With whatever is left after each of those steps, with the volume much reduced, it goes to the landfill including ash from the burned materials.”
The shift towards being able to reclaim and reuse products, including padding or stuffing materials called “fluff’ to be used as part of the daily covering for the landfill in addition to soil, grit and sand. “There’s very much a push that’s driven by regulation as well as markets, to take waste and create a product that is a commodity, like shredded tires for playgrounds. “And the other side of it is you may have a recycled product that’s useful, but the cost to transport it where it can be used is horrendous, so that product may be limited to a two-to-three-hundred-mile useable range. That’s a tough one.”
The more the original material has been processed, the harder to find a recycling market for it.
Carbon negativity
Herrick noted that this reclaim and reuse stage process, while labor intensive, equates to a 5:1 reduction in volume going to the landfill, extending its life drastically. A study performed in 2015 concluded that the French Island plant is carbon negative by 43 percent per ton of garbage when compared to landfilling that same amount of waste traditionally. That volume reduction means they don’t have to site new landfills as fast.
In 2021, the WTO facility processed 79,824 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW), and 7,545 tons in June alone that year. With 33 staff members, they processed enough waste to provide almost 70,000 MWh of electricity in 2021, while producing emissions below the limits, meaning no environmental pollutants affecting air quality from the plant. From 107,800 tons of RDF and waste wood, they sent 12,203 tons of ash to the landfill.
The WTO reclaimed metals using magnets and non-ferrous separators to recycle more than 2,561 tons of metals in 2021, some from burned materials. Herrick noted that the LaCrosse County Landfill methane gas released naturally is captured and scrubbed, then piped over to use at Gundersen Clinic as a new energy product to heat the building. Due to the organic matter being used as RDF, they may not produce as much as other landfills not associated with an energy reclamation facility, but still enough to produce 200 cubic feet of methane fuel per minute.
The transport distances and trucking associated with hauling garbage is a factor but is very manageable for Houston County waste management companies hauling the county’s waste an average of 33 miles, while providing the first level of compaction to the waste. Herrick added, “Dense waste is safer – fewer fires, less settling – and causes far less problems. Typical landfills try to get the waste compacted to around 1,700 pounds per cubic yard. It’s about being a better steward, as well.” Trash is collected in cities, and at five rural drop-off sites where trucking routes are not available, then trucked to the WTO and/or the landfill, based on the type of trash collected.
The modern landfill systems are fairly complicated: clay liners, geomembranes, geotextiles, gas control, leachate collection lines and more, which lends itself to larger businesses who can meet regulations for operation, maintenance and planning for closure practices. Few counties could take on the specifications needed to build a new landfill today, as well as create a fund for its future closure.
Currently, Houston County has completed 20 years of yearly payments for upgrades to address emission control to LaCrosse County this June. Contributing over $384,000 toward the $10.9 million dollar upgrade, in addition to monthly service fees.
Be knowledgeable
“Keeping hazardous waste out of the landfills is extremely important, as many hazardous waste chemicals are actually worse than the original material as they start to break down. The goal with waste is to get it to the point where it is an inert substance, or close to it.”
“The closer you are to being able to use it the better – be aware of what can and cannot be reused or recycled. Indirectly there are something that work better than others – a lot of things found as ‘the new contaminants,’ like PFAS chemicals, comes down to consumption of materials in the first place. Nothing’s going to be perfect, but it comes down to better choices at the source of use. Everything is going to cause a problem, it’s just some things cause smaller problems,” he said with a laugh.
For more information on the Houston County Solid Waste program, visit www.co.houston.mn.us under Environmental Services tab, or visit www.lacrossecounty.org/solidwaste.
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