The average American produces about 1,500 pounds of trash a year. In Oswego County, that translates to about 94,000 tons a year.

With all that trash, landfills can be filled to their limit. In Oswego County, there is an alternative to landfills.

Down the road from Oswego State, there is an Energy Recovery Facility, or ERF. They take the trash Oswego County residents produce and burn it.

The waste is sorted in a separate facility first, then transported to the ERF. It goes through four incinerators and what was once waste is reduced to ash.

“That reduces the burnable waste to about 25 percent of the garbage,” Patrick Ryan, chief facility operator of the Energy Recovery Facility in Fulton, said. “That’s important because landfill space is expensive.”

Using an ERF also cuts down on emissions. Since ash is inorganic, it produces no methane, which is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

“I think it’s a viable way to eliminate trash because it reduces not only the mass but the volume of trash that needs to be stored,” biochemical student Kyle Pollicove said.

In terms of other emissions, such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, all of which are pollutants that destroy the ozone layer, the ERF has strict guidelines about how much they can produce.

“Any of the volatile gasses will burn off in the upper chambers,” Ryan said.

In the 1990s, the federal government changed the emissions controls on power plants.

“They put in bag houses, which are air filters, and scrubbers, which takes any acid gases out,” Ryan said. “They have pretty strict limits on how much the acid gases that go out of the stack, acid rain and all the particulate matter gets taken out pretty much.”

Emissions are not the only way that ERFs reduce pollution. It is also used to burn illegal drugs, prescription drugs, confidential projects from Lockheed Martin and invasive species.

“It’s not a good idea to throw prescription medication into the garbage because it will end up in the water table,” Ryan said. “We have agreements with Kinney Drugs and the police will burn illicit drugs.”

In addition to limiting pollutants of all sorts, the Energy Recovery Facility also produces electricity in the forms of heat and steam. The ERF makes four megawatts per hour. However, the energy is sold to other companies as part of an agreement with the New York State government.

Even though the Energy Recovery Facility is an effective way to reduce emissions and trash volume, and produce energy, Tim Braun, a professor who specializes in biofuels and green energy at Oswego State, argues that it could operate even more efficiently.

In Volney, there is another ERF. It is set up next to an industrial plant that it sells steam to.

“It has a higher efficiency, because not only is it selling eight megawatts of electricity on average, but it also giving steam heat to the plastics plant right up the road from it,” Braun said. “It’s got a higher efficiency, which is the way to set those plants up.”

Despite the good that comes from ERFs, some people are still resistant to use them. They cite the fact that it still produces harmful emissions.

“They’re not set up to handle things like selenium, cadmium, some of these other moderately toxic metals that occur in consumer products,” Braun said.

Braun said although the detractors are correct, the plants produce a small enough amount of emissions that it does not weigh out the benefits, such as lack of methane produced and not having to pay for extra landfill space.

In general, the public is not aware of the benefits of Energy Recovery Facilities.

“I didn’t know about the local ones,” Pollicove said. “I learned about it in my environment class. I don’t think many people know what they are.”