For Immediate Release: August 8, 2022 

Covanta, a leader in sustainable materials management and a premier provider of environmental solutions benefiting businesses and communities across North America, announced that the Covanta Alexandria Waste-to-Energy facility recently completed planned enhancements to its state-of-the-art pollution control technology. The goal is to further reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, thereby helping to protect the environment.  

The Alexandria-based Waste-to-Energy facility serves 400,000 residents and businesses in the City of Alexandria and Arlington County. It provides reliable and sustainable waste management by combusting non-hazardous household waste at high temperatures, which then generates steam for renewable electricity production. In this way, Covanta processes and converts more than 350,000 tons of waste into energy. This waste would otherwise end up in landfills.  

“The installation of this new NOx technology will even further reduce the emissions and improve air quality,” Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson said. “This is an important effort to support the City of Alexandria in reaching our Environmental Action Plan 2040 goals.” 

With installation of its proprietary Low NOx (LN) technology now complete, nitrogen oxide emissions have been reduced by nearly 50%. The effort was part of a multi-year project at the Covanta Alexandria-Arlington Facility. By reducing the waste put in landfills, Covanta Alexandria has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 331,000 tons of carbon dioxide. That’s the same as taking 65,000 passenger vehicles off the road for one year. 

“Covanta is proud to manage our services and facilities in a way that prioritizes our communities, our businesses and our planet,” said Covanta area asset manager Don Cammarata. “Today marks an important step in our work with the community to reduce our environmental impact and improve air quality.” 

The Low NOx technology is unique within the industry and demonstrates Covanta’s dedication to investment in research and development to provide superior environmental performance.  

“Our ongoing partnership with Covanta is important to Arlington and we applaud their efforts to reduce NOx emissions to help lessen our impact on the environment,” said Katie Cristol, Arlington County Board chair. “Converting waste that would typically end up in landfills to energy makes our community more sustainable.” 

The facility also recovers 11,200 tons of metal annually and produces enough energy to power 15,000 homes 24 hours a day, seven days a week for a year.  

About Covanta 

Covanta is a leader in sustainable materials management providing environmental solutions to businesses and communities across the U.S. Through its network of facilities and state-of-the-art services, Covanta is a single-source partner in solving today's most complex environmental challenges. For more information, visit covanta.com. 

Visit alexandriava.gov/ResourceRecovery for more information. 

For news media inquiries, please contact the following: 

Alexandria 
Office of Communications & Public Information 
newsroom@alexandriava.gov 
703.746.3969 

Arlington County 
Katie O’Brien 
kobrien@arlingtonva.us 
703.228.4952 

Covanta 
Nicolle Robles 
nrobles@covanta.com  
862.345.5245 

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This news release is available at alexandriava.gov/go/3864.