One person's trash is a Davenport cement maker's fuel.

Lafarge Davenport, located near Buffalo, Iowa, has installed a renewable fuel system that allows the plant to convert waste into fuel for its heat-intensive manufacturing process.

The $6 million project, which was several years in the making, will allow the plant to reduce its coal consumption by about 35,000 tons in 2009, according to Nalin Joshi, the plant's environmental manager.

"We're taking waste that otherwise would have gone to the landfill," Joshi said of the paper, plastic and packaging materials being burned to fuel Lafarge's kiln. The raw materials, which arrive by the truckload, are waste created by other industries across eastern Iowa and western Illinois.

"It's a win-win for everybody," Joshi said, adding that the suppliers can avoid the disposal costs by sending their waste to Lafarge. "What was once wasted will now reduce our emissions, and provide environmental and economic benefit to us all. Already this year, we have diverted more than 15,000 tons of material from the landfill."

In addition to the paper and plastic byproducts, Joshi said the Davenport plant is burning seeds for fuel. An area agricultural company supplies Lafarge with seeds that may be outdated or have quality issues, he said.

The latest fuel alternatives complement Lafarge's use of fuel waste oil, such as from oil change operations, and glycerin, a byproduct of biofuel. In fact, the plant's renewable fuels use has increased from 7.5 percent in 2006 to about 25 percent of the total energy needed.

The different waste streams are processed separately and blown through a series of pipes to the kiln and injected as fuel on the front end of the manufacturing process.

Joshi said the new technology required "a lot of science" to determine that the substitute fuel would result in an end product that still would be the same quality and consistency. "Not all fuels have the same chemistry."

Julie Plummer of Iowa Waste Exchange applauded Lafarge's waste-to-energy efforts. "It's very good because they are taking a waste product and getting value out of it. And they're doing it with things that aren't necessarily very recyclable by traditional means."

Plummer, who did consulting with Lafarge's corporate staff, said the company is one of a few Quad-City industries that have boilers that could burn things. But the idea of converting waste to fuel is becoming more prevalent in Iowa, she said.

As one of 10 area resources specialists across Iowa, Plummer works through Eastern Iowa Community College District to help businesses and industry develop smart waste management alternatives. Part of her role is to help match the waste stream of one company with raw material needs of another.

Lafarge installed a secondary shredder to chop up the material even finer, Joshi said. The company also built a structure around the new equipment, expanding its capacity for accepting, processing and storing the recyclables.

The latest waste-to-fuel efforts are part of Lafarge's global mission of sustainability. In 2009, the company was listed in the "Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World."

"We're trying to get away from using fossil fuels to minimize our carbon footprint," Joshi said. Although the plant still must use coal on the front end of its kiln process, its renewable fuel processes will cut the plant's carbon emissions by almost 42,000 tons a year. That would be equivalent to planting more than 8,600 acres of forest or removing emissions from 7,000 vehicles.

In addition to the environmental aspects, he said the company began pursing alternative fuel opportunities when "the cost of coal went up and up."

With a company-wide goal of environmental sustainability, he said, "We're always looking for opportunities to make our business sustainable and allow the planet to be habitable."