Lee County, Fla., Turns Burning Trash Into Industry Treasure

Brigitte Kantor's computer runs on garbage.

That doesn't mean her operating system stinks, but that she works at the Waste to Energy Facility in Lee County, Fla., which burns about 1,830 tons of municipal solid waste every day. At the plant, combustion units turn trash to ash, preserving landfills and producing electricity that powers everything from the cranes that load refuse into the boilers to the fans, lights and computers.

Now the coastal county hopes to cash in on the wealth of carbon credits it has accumulated through this waste management system that reduces the amount of carbon dioxide released into the air. In mathematical terms, one carbon credit equals one ton of carbon dioxide saved; Lee County has 83,732 carbon credits.

Across the country, governments have taken steps to reduce carbon footprints. Selling carbon credits puts Lee County at the forefront of a movement that includes a potential federal cap on greenhouse emissions, and represents the growing trend of going green and seeking gold.

In the U.S., carbon credits can be bought and sold voluntarily at prices determined by the market. These credits may not be tangible, said Kantor, solid waste coordinator for the Lee County Solid Waste Division. But their value, she said, comes from the idea that when a company buys carbon credits, "they're buying into a way of doing business that takes the environment into consideration."

Carbon Credit Check

Currently there isn't a national carbon dioxide cap-and-trade program in the works, meaning no federal limit exists on the amount of greenhouse gases a company or entity can emit.

Booming in countries overseas, this market-based approach to reducing emissions and trading credits hovered low over various political systems after President Barack Obama declared in 2008 via YouTube that the country would enter a federal cap-and-trade system. In 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), an energy bill that proposes such a system.

But in the past few months, support from some states and big oil companies has evaporated. This week, natural gas producer ConocoPhillips announced its departure from the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), which had been pushing cap-and-trade to Congress.

Still, some states have adopted and joined gas emissions trading systems. On the local level, a number of municipalities - such as Worcester County, Md., and Greenville County, S.C. - have implemented systems for wastewater treatment, wind power, and landfill gas collection and methane recovery projects in which they earn carbon credits.

"The idea behind offsets is that they are a transitional tool," said David Antonioli, CEO of the Voluntary Carbon Standard, which provides a global standard for voluntary offset projects and issues credits. "If we want to achieve a low-carbon economy, we have to enable low-cost emission reductions, and offsets help you achieve that."

Earning credits helps companies and municipalities focus on environmental efforts. Large-scale emitters can then purchase these credits to plug any holes in their emissions reduction plans due to lack of technology, finance or limitations they may face within their internal plans to meet emission targets.

Purchasers of offsets have to be careful. Like the stock market, carbon credit trading can be tricky. For instance, a municipality might overestimate the number of credits they will receive from a project, or they might not have done the monitoring correctly, experts say, so buyers who may depend on delivery from specific projects need to incorporate hedging strategies, such as not relying on one project.

Banking on a Dirty Business

Set against the coast of Southwest Florida, Lee County is the type of place people go to stretch out on white sand beaches, kayak down estuaries and hit golf balls into tropical breezes. According to county officials, keeping