Site Visit 6/3

Today, we went to visit another waste treatment facility. The facility, shown below, included a landfill, a composting plant, an anaerobic digester, as well as wind turbines and a solar farm.

Our guide for the day, a chemist at the waste plant (who spoke excellent English, and later told us that he had been to the U.K. for a week, and this was his second time speaking English in public!), explained that all of the trucks that come into the facility must be weighed before and after, so they know exactly how much waste is coming in on a daily basis. The waste is made up of mostly municipal waste, though some "special" waste consisting of industrial office trash also comes into the facility. He took us through all of the different facilities, explaining what they are all used for. I found the composting plant to be particularly interesting- since Italians usually do not have garbage disposals, the content of organics from food waste going into the waste plant is much higher than in the U.S. The guide also explained the differences in compost, depending on whether or not sewage sludge is included in the waste, and the content (i.e. wooden waste, iron scraps, "light" waste, etc.) of the waste. As a whole, the Villaservice Spa produces about 1.5 million cubic meters of biogas from the anaerobic plant per year, 1.1 million cubic meters of biogas from the landfill, and uses 800,000 cubic meters every year for electrical power; producing about 2.3 million kWh of electricity every year.

Weigh-in station

Our guide showing us around the facilities

Lots of seagulls

Compost smells gooooood

Biogas dome

On right - biogas flare

Forearm tanning

Biogas reactor

View from the top of the biogas reactor

After the waste facility, we went to a nearby mountain to walk around and see a waterfall called "Sa Spendula." Unfortunately, because it's summer, the streams and waterfall were relatively dry and there wasn't much water. It was still great to see the area and enjoy the outdoors for an afternoon.