Waste Management Helps Power BWM

Waste Management, Inc.’s Palmetto Landfill helps power BMW's manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In 2001, BMW and WM built a 9.5-mile pipeline to deliver the landfill gas directly to the plant where it is used to power four onsite turbines and “cogenerate” electricity and hot water for the automotive plant. The turbines, which prior to this project were powered by natural gas, began running on landfill gas on January 29, 2003 and have been solely powered by landfill gas since the middle of April 2003.

This Palmetto Landfill contains approximately 10 million tons of refuse and is permitted for a total of 16 million tons of refuse. It generates a substantial amount of gas. The energy created through this partnership is equivalent to the amount of energy currently necessary to heat 15,000 homes a year. Before this project was implemented, this gas was collected and burned in flares located at the landfill in an effort to reduce odors and methane gas emissions. The gas offers a source of "green" (e.g. renewable, nonpolluting) energy that will last as long as the landfill waste continues to decompose–through 2030 and beyond.

This landfill gas project was formally adopted as an environmental improvement program in 2002 as one of the requirements of BMW’s environmental management system. It supports BMW’s sustainability strategy, specifically by means of conserving natural resources and minimizing environmental impact.

It is estimated that this project will reduce the plant’s natural gas consumption by 15.8 billion cubic feet over the next 20 years. The use of this renewable energy source provides more than 25 percent of BMW’s energy needs in Spartanburg while reducing its dependence on nonrenewable fossil fuels and lowering the area’s carbon dioxide emissions (by 42,000 tons in 2003, the equivalent of more than 93 million miles driven per year by the average automobile).

For its efforts, BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC has won several national and state environmental awards, including the 2003 South Carolina Governor’s Pollution Prevention Award, EPA’s Green Power Award, and EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) Project of the Year award. Learn more about the BWM program at WM and EPA.

Read about more companies using energy from landfills.