Lancaster County Solid Waste joins Chicago Climate Exchange

The Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority (LCSWMA) in Lancaster, Pa. has become the first public environmental services organization in the United States to join the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the first legally-binding, multi-sector market for reducing and trading greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The LCSWMA warrants inclusion in the CCX due to the GHGs generated by its waste-to-energy facility and collection trucks. As a member, LCSWMA has committed to demonstrating a 6 percent reduction in those emissions as measured between the baseline year of 2000 and the deadline of 2010.

"The Authority has been and remains committed to actively pursuing environmentally sound and productive methodologies to manage municipal solid waste,” said Jim Warner, Executive Director of LCSWMA, in a press release. “Joining the CCX provides us a platform to extend our best environmental practices to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Being both a member and a greenhouse gas offset project participant with CCX enables us to achieve environmental goals with financial rewards attached. That’s an attractive combination for any organization.”