View the Solid Waste Processing Division's white paper, "Waste-to-Energy: A Renewable Energy Source from Municipal Solid Waste" , which was delivered to several elected legislators on Capitol Hill.

The Solid Waste Processing Division (SWPD) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is one of the newer and smaller divisions and yet it is one of the most active divisions within ASME. The SWPD started as the Incinerator Committee in 1961 and then became the Incinerator Division in 1967. In 1974 the name was changed to its present name : The Solid Waste Processing Division. The objective of the SWPD is to collect, correlate and disseminate accurate information on all aspects of the solid waste processing industry. The transfer of information is done through conferences with peer-reviewed papers, facility tours, and seminars. The solid waste management systems reviewed by the division include thermal conversion, resource recovery and recycling, energy recovery from the combustion of solid waste as well as landfill gas, and the training of operators for these facilities.

ACTIVITIES : The Division is active on a National level through its Annual Conference, now held jointly with the EPA, and several other Societies. In addition, the Division also sponsors three Regional Conferences with the Eastern Chapter, the Midwest Chapter, and the Western Chapter. The Division is active in many other areas such as:

• Operator Training
• Research on air emission control and ash reuse
• Scholarships
• Honors and Awards

The SWPD also maintains a liaison position to the ASME Research Committee on Industrial and Municipal Waste and Government Relations Office in Washington D.C.