Several years ago, former Vice-President Al Gore appeared on Saturday Night Live and, in a skit based on the premise that he won the 2000 election and was addressing the nation from the Oval Office, said that he had mandated that cars run on trash. The joke got a big laugh from the studio audience, surely in part because the idea seemed a little wacky.

Well, wacky may be getting closer to reality than we could have imagined then.

According to this report from a Northwestern Medill School of Journalism newspaper, Lake County, Ind., may soon be home to the “first commercial-scale plants in the country [that] turn garbage into ethanol.”

Indiana Ethanol Power LLC has submitted a proposal to the county’s Solid Waste Management District for a facility that would use a process called “weak-acid hydrolysis” to convert trash into roughly 20 million gallons of ethanol a year, the paper says. Meanwhile, Genahol-Powers 1 LLC is seeking the county’s permission to build a facility that would burn trash to produce approximately 30 million gallons of ethanol annually.

If the district approves the proposals at a June meeting, then the plants could conceivably be up and running within two years, according to the paper. However, the local Sierra Club is voicing concerns about the technology that would be used in the Genahol plant.

“It’s still kind of an old-fashioned technology,” Sandy O’Brien, chair of the Dunelands Sierra Club, told the newspaper. “They’ll be burning things they could be recycling, like plastic.”

The Lake County news comes nearly a month after Waste Management announced that it has partnered with Linde North America to develop a Northern California facility that will convert landfill gas into liquified natural gas (LNG) to fuel area collection trucks. The facility is slated to open next year and Waste Management says it will produce roughly 13,000 gallons of LNG a day.

So, what’s your take? Will this prove to be a viable end use for trash?

While recycling materials is still more expensive for New York City than landfilling them, the cost difference is shrinking, according to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that is summarized in today’s New York Times. And recycling could even be cheaper for the city than landfilling within half a decade, the report adds.

The study, which was released by NRDC on Wednesday, says it costs the city $284 a ton to recycle glass, plastic, metal and paper, and $267 to landfill the materials. According to the Times, the cost difference was between $34 and $48 in 2004.

“Here is proof positive that recycling is cost-competitive with other waste disposal, to say nothing of cutting the city’s contribution to global warming,” said Eric Goldstein, a senior lawyer at NRDC, in the Times’ article.

And, so far at least, the city appears to be comfortable with the figures cited in the report. “We have no big disagreement with how they want to look at the numbers,” said Lorenzo Cipollina, deputy commissioner for financial management for New York’s Department of Sanitation.

That’s the question posed in this Reuters article about landfill gas-to-energy projects and other efforts to turn waste into energy. Environmentalists aren’t quite as enthusiastic as the industry about such projects.

In fact, Nathanael Green, director of renewable energy policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the Reuters reporter that promoting the environmental benefits of the projects is like “putting lipstick on a big.”

“This is an environmentally preferable option, but it’s not renewable in the sense that it’s not something we can do forever,” Green adds. “Before we go adding incentives for energy production from garbage, we need to first get the incentives right so that we are maximizing the amount of recycling we do.”

Filling up the gas tank for the Memorial Day weekend getaway serves as a powerful (and painful) reminder of how much commodity prices have soared in recent months. The Waste Equipment Equipment Technology Association (WASTEC) has produced a three-page “issue bulletin” that summarizes the trends and looks at the effects on both manufacturers and haulers. To download a copy of the bulletin, visit www.wastec.org and click on the “WASTEC Issues Bulletin on Materials Cost Increases” link on the right-hand side of the page.

And from all of us here at Waste Age, have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend.

The National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) has unveiled another component of its multi-pronged “Slow Down to Get Around” safety campaign. (NSWMA) has released a television ad urging motorists to drive slowly and with care when maneuvering around trash and recycling collection vehicles. The ad, which is available in a 30- and 60-second version, was created in part with support from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

According to an NSWMA press release, at least half a dozen waste collection workers have been killed during the past after being struck by a car. “Too many families have suffered the loss of a loved one through this sort of incident,” said NSWMA General Counsel David Biderman in the press release. “But we can reduce the frequency of this type of accident by educating the general public. We understand why such accidents occur. With some simple changes and better driver education, we can save many lives.”

NSWMA is encouraging private haulers and local governments to share copies of the ads with their local radio and television stations. To request a broadcast-quality copy of the ads, contact Biderman at davidb@envasns.org or (202) 364-3743.

Earlier this year, NSWMA aired “Slow Down to Get Around” radio ads in 10 cities, and the association also provides “Slow Down to Get Around” decals for haulers to place on their trucks. To request the decals, contact Niehaus at sales@niehauscorp.com or (859) 331-3733.