A Canadian company is one of the first companies in the world to take garbage from municipal waste in turn it into gas. Enerkem’s facility in Quebec will use garbage and convert it into cellostic ethanol. The new technology converts biomass forestry by-products, such as wood chips and non-compostable trash into ethanol. This type of ethanol is produced from stuff that no one wants. This is the type of ethanol that is not produced from food crops. It is estimated that there is enough of this type of garbage in Canadian landfills that can power 3 million cars per year.
In theory this is a positive step. There has been much debate over the use of ethanol to power our cars, especially when food crops are used to do so. This technology not only reuses waste that Canadians dispose of everyday, but lessons our dependence on oil.