On April 4, 1972, Union Electric Company became the first to generate electrical energy from solid waste, at the Meramec Power Station near St. Louis, Missouri. Using household garbage as a supplement to coal,
the plant produced 10 percent of its power from refuse. The city of St.
Louis, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Union Electric
Company cooperated on the project to demonstrate that using waste as fuel could improve the environment, conserve resources, and be economically feasible.
In the years since the Meramec power plant first incinerated waste to produce electricity,
waste-to-energy initiatives have become popular throughout the world.
Today, waste is not the only material burned to produce energy.
Byproducts of waste, such as methane
gas, are also captured and used as a clean energy source. As the
worldwide demand for energy grows, waste-to-energy projects will only
grow in importance. They provide an alternative to fossil fuels and have
a variety of economic and environmental benefits.
*As a footnote, this power plant has been closed down as of 2014
