In March 2018, after 27 years of operation, Covanta reached the milestone of having processed 10 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) from the Lancaster County, PA, community—and thereby keeping it out of a landfill that would have been the equivalent of more than 600 football fields filled 10 feet deep. The environmental benefits of recovering the energy from this waste include:

  • Offsetting the equivalent GHG emissions of over 1.9 million passenger cars on the road for one year;
  • Producing 5.6 million megawatt-hours of electricity, enough to supply all the homes in the City of Lancaster for more than 21 years; and
  • Recovering 180,000 tons of ferrous metal for recycling, equivalent to over two Golden Gate Bridges.