I talked to the owner of a local waste management company about plasma gasification. He was aware of the technology and said it cost too much for him to use.

I talked to the owner of a local waste management company about plasma gasification. He was aware of the technology and said it cost too much for him to use. He'd have to be taking in trash from five New England states to have enough volume to keep the machine fed and make it cost effective. Sounded like an opportunity to me, but it seemed too risky to him. I'm not sure why he thought the technology could not scale down to the size of his operation, though I have read that it is something you want to keep going continuously, otherwise it costs a lot (in electricity or fossil fuel) to build up enough heat to start the process. Maybe it requires a minimum thermal mass to be self sustaining?