GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A new deal that would reduce how much Consumers Energy pays independent energy producers for electricity could mean you will be paying more to have your garbage hauled away.
Since 1990, when the Kent County Waste to Energy Facility was built, it has been selling the energy it produces to Consumers Energy for the same price Consumers charges its customers.
The giant facility tucked away along Market Avenue does not smell great up close and the floors are pretty slimy, but despite its appearance, it provides a vital service.
“Most people don’t see the business end of our Waste to Energy facility, but we’re really an energy plant, we’re an electrical generation plant, we just happen to use refuse or municipal solid waste as our fuel,” said Darwin Baas, Kent County Department of Public Works director.
If you live in most of Kent County, all the garbage hauled to the curb does not go to a landfill to rot away, it gets taken here where it is dumped. That includes Wyoming, Grand Rapids, Walker, Kentwood, Grandville and East Grand Rapids.
In the 27 years since the $105 million plant was built, it has kept 500 million tons of garbage out of the waste stream opening up 10 years-worth of space at the South Kent Landfill.
The trash is burned and that burning process steam and that steam drives turbines which creates electricity.
“We generate enough electricity to power almost every home in the city of Walker,” Baas said.
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