Power from rubbish

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 17 February 2010 - 5:05pm, by Thijs Westerbeek van Eerten

All Amsterdam trams run on 'refuse power' as well as all the street lighting and even the electricity used in public buildings is waste-generated.

AEB, the energy company run by Amsterdam city council, is the biggest power plant in the world to be run entirely on waste. What's more; AEB claims it's the best of its kind because it gets nearly 50 percent more energy out of the waste than its competitors.

Because no fossil fuel, such as coal or gas, is needed for the production of all this power, the plant substantially reduces Amsterdam's CO2 emissions; 350,000 tonnes annually.

And there is one more bonus; because even the ashes from the ovens are recycled, for instance in building materials, only one percent of all Amsterdam's rubbish remains, making landfill sites virtually unnecessary.