Material is already collected. Contamination and diversion show up after the sort. Wastewater aeration and landfill systems run whether the process is tight or loose. The operation still has to move the load.
01
Fuel condition inferred while it is still burning
Read furnace, steam and air tags the plant already logs, so grate, feed and air corrections start earlier in the swing than steam output alone allows.
02
Loading pushed against a modelled stability margin
Estimate digester state between lab VFA results, so organic loading is decided against predicted margin rather than last week's sample.
03
The biogenic/fossil split with an evidence trail
Connect declared emissions to waste receipts and sampling the plant already keeps, so uncertainty and financial sensitivity are visible before verification.
On the floor and at the plant
Waste operations lose money in three places that rarely share one screen: recoverable material lost to contamination or landfill, energy burned in aeration or processing to cover uncertainty, and an asset or compliance miss found after the load has already moved. Most of that is already in SCADA, weighbridge, LIMS and CMMS — after the fact.
DiversionEPA Facts and Figures for 2018 put about 50% of U.S. MSW in landfills and a recycling-plus-composting rate around 32%. Every contaminated load that becomes residue was already collected and hauled — so the cost is paid twice when markets reject the bale.
EnergyWastewater aeration, pumping and solids handling sit among a municipality’s largest energy users. On the solid-waste side, MRF motors, compactors and collection fleets absorb uncertainty with conservative schedules — and write the power and fuel bill.
The recordWeighbridge tickets, contamination scores, gas/leachate readings and clearances often sit in separate systems. When the approved sequence is hard to find, crews invent the next step under pressure.
Sending it to residue is the easy correction. It is also how the day is spent.
INSUS works from plant and fleet tags, weighbridge and quality records, work orders and equipment logs an operation already keeps. If the gap is an unread blower alarm, a contaminated stream that never joined the ticket, or a clearance sheet that never joined the event, that is what we will say. Recommendations stay advisory. Existing SCADA, PLC and plant controls stay in charge.
Industry figures
Four external figures, each with its source. Nothing on this page is an estimate we made up. Where we cannot cite a number, we describe the situation in words instead.
MSW generated
292.4Mtons
of municipal solid waste generated in the United States in 2018 — about 4.9 pounds per person per day — according to EPA Facts and Figures (latest comprehensive national dataset).
Source: U.S. EPA, National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling
Landfilled
50%
of that 2018 MSW stream was landfilled (more than 146 million tons), while about 11.8% was combusted with energy recovery — leaving diversion and contamination control as the main levers between landfill and recovery.
Source: U.S. EPA, National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling
Recycling + composting
32.1%
combined recycling and composting rate for U.S. MSW in 2018. EPA has set a national recycling goal of 50% by 2030 — a gap that still sits in collection quality, sorting and end markets, not only in tonnage collected.
Source: U.S. EPA, National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling
Infrastructure need
$36.5–43.4B
estimated investment EPA’s 2024 recycling infrastructure assessment says would be needed to improve U.S. curbside, drop-off and processing infrastructure by 2030 — with potential to lift recovery enough to raise the national recycling rate from about 32% toward 61%.
Source: U.S. EPA, U.S. Recycling Infrastructure Assessment and State Data Collection Reports
Common problems
None of these show up as a single alarm. They show up in the steam swing after the fuel changed, the carbon split nobody can evidence, and the digester held too far from the edge.
Municipal waste heat content cannot be measured directly. Operators correct after steam and oxygen move — and moist, low-calorific charges can push simple control the wrong way.
See: WtE Combustion StabilityWhen fossil emissions carry a cost, a default composition factor is not the same as measured evidence. Waste receipts, sampling and declared emissions often live apart until verification forces them together.
See: EfW Biogenic & Fossil Carbon MRVVFA, alkalinity and pH confirm stability after the feed decision is already spent. Most plants run well inside the boundary — leaving yield unclaimed — while an acidification event still costs extended degraded output.
See: Anaerobic Digestion Stability & YieldUse cases
Each is a specific starting point — this incineration line, this digester, this MRV record — and a next conversation if it is worth your time.
Infer waste calorific value from furnace response and advise grate, feed and air earlier in the swing, inside permit temperature and emissions limits. Advisory only.
See the full use case
Connect EfW emissions to waste receipts, composition sampling and plant data to quantify the biogenic and fossil CO₂ split, expose evidence gaps and prepare a traceable MRV record. Advisory only.
See the full use case
Estimate digester stability and VFA risk between lab results, and predict biogas yield for a planned feed, so organic loading is set against a modelled margin. Advisory only.
See the full use caseFAQ
A practical look at what INSUS needs, where it fits and what your team can expect.
The work that fits is the data a waste or wastewater operation already produces: plant and fleet tags, weighbridge and quality records, work orders and equipment condition signals. Predictive Maintenance can start from signals you already log. Closed-loop aeration control and automatic sort decisions are not promises we will make on day one.
Energy & Utilities is the parent overview across power, grid, renewables, water and waste. Water focuses on drinking water treatment and distribution — NRW, network pressure and clean-water plants. Waste covers solid waste (collection, MRFs, landfill) and wastewater process energy and reliability — where diversion, contamination and aeration dominate the cost of a miss.
Usually not for SCADA, historians and maintenance. Most sites already have weighbridge data, some process tags and work-order history. If a critical meter has been drifting or an alarm code is unused, that comes before any model.
No. The person who knows this stream, this plant and this permit stays responsible. The aim is to stop the next shift repeating the same contamination or energy waste, and to flag a developing equipment issue before it stops the line.
No. It advises the operations or engineering team. Existing SCADA, PLC and safety interlocks stay in charge of the loop. Protection systems are not touched.
No. Diversion and energy depend on inbound composition, markets, equipment condition and operating practice. We will not invent a recycling-rate or kWh/m³ target for your site.
They are published U.S. national benchmarks — not measurements of your sites. Your weighbridge, SCADA and work orders are the numbers that matter.
Yes. One MRF line, one WWTP train, or one landfill cell is usually the practical start. Measure that, then decide whether to widen.
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