Implementation of the Taunton, Massachusetts Regional Solid Waste Management Facility

Taunton, Massachusetts (City) is a city of 55,000 people located in Southeast Massachusetts, approximately 35 miles from Boston. Currently it hosts a regional landfill that will reach capacity in 2013. Beginning in 2005, the City began the process of searching for a solid waste management technology to replace the landfill. The focus for the search has been on conversion technologies capable of recovering materials and producing electricity or fuels, and maximizing diversion of waste from landfilling. Technologies being considered include both traditional and emerging technologies; e.g., composting, co-composting, thermal gasification, aerobic and anaerobic digestion, hydrolysis and mechanical means of waste separation into useful products. Landfilling and traditional waste-to-energy technology are not being considered.