CNN Express is Back; Turning Trash to Cash
VELSHI: Hi, you caught me. It's 4:00 in the morning here in Abilene, Texas. I got me a corn dog.</s>VELSHI: Not one of my prouder moments in life. I'm hitting the road this week heading back out on the CNN Express. But before I go, I thought I'd give you all a little taste -- no pun intended -- of what life on the bus is like and let you know if we're rolling into your town anytime soon. CNN Express producer Josh Rubin joins me now and he'll be joining me all next week. He's the guy who makes it happen. Josh, what are we doing next week?</s>JOSH RUBIN, PRODUCER, CNN EXPRESS: We're traveling around the country. We're basically going to start from Atlanta and we're going to make our way to that most American of traditions -- the fair. We're going to start in Atlanta, make our way up towards Tennessee. We're going to swing our way over to Missouri State Fair and we're going to end our illustrious trip at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. So there's going to be a lot of different fried food. I know you've had corn dogs but have you ever had a deep-fried Twinkie?</s>VELSHI: I haven't had a deep-fried Twinkie and when we get to -- we're going to swing through Kentucky a little bit, the southern part of Illinois. But by the time we get to Des Moines, the Iowa State Fair has a butter sculpture of some sort.</s>RUBIN: The Iowa State Fair every year has a spectacular full-sized butter cow like we're talking full-size cow made out of butter, and this year the extra butter statue is going to be of Neil Armstrong commemorating his walk on the moon.</s>VELSHI: All right. In addition to the fun we're going to have, and I'm quite looking forward to it. And my eating habits are -- I'm salivating now thinking about all the food we're going to eat. But we're going out there and in between meals we're going to be talking to Americans about the economy, about health care. You've been on that bus a lot more than I have. I've had a few runs on it. What's the benefit of doing it that way over the way we often get to cover news particularly from officials and politicians?</s>RUBIN: Well, I get about 60,000 miles over the course of the election. I'm based in D.C. but I traveled all over the country during those two years in the run-up to the election and the election. You just get out there and you just talk to people, real people. You get off the East Coast. You get out of New York. You get out of D.C. You get into the middle of small towns and small communities all across the country. They really tell you what they're thinking.</s>VELSHI: We're going to be doing that through a lot of different places. We'll be stopping at a different place everyday. It's always fantastic when the bus pulls into a small town. It's a real magnet for people. So if we come into any of the places near where you are, come and talk to us, you're welcome to do that. Send us your e-mail. We'll be tweeting from the bus. What's the Twitter address for the bus?</s>RUBIN: The twitter address is @cnnexpress.</s>VELSHI: Ok, @cnnexpress.</s>RUBIN: We'll be following -- we'll be following what you're eating on CNN Express pretty regularly so people will able to chime in.</s>VELSHI: I'm be tweeting about what I'm eating. Josh, I'll see you. We'll get it going Monday morning out of Atlanta and we'll spend the next week on the road. If you see us on the road, give us a honk or pull us over and we'll talk to you about what's going on. We'll hear your stories. That's next week, but right now we're going to take you to a small North Carolina town that's turning trash into cash and helping the environment at the same time. CNN's Reynolds Wolf explains.</s>REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Barry Edwards sees trash, he thinks money.</s>BARRY EDWARDS, DIR. OF UTILITIES & ENGINEERING, CATAWBA COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: It actually makes money.</s>WOLF: He works as the director of utilities and engineering in Catawba County, North Carolina where they've been producing electricity from their landfill since 1999. (on camera): While it looks like I'm walking on a sunny hillside in North Carolina, I'm actually walking on a landfill. Below the ground we have all kinds of trash. And that trash is creating methane; methane that's being pulled up by this well and then methane equals power. (voice-over): The methane gas powers these generators that feed to the power company.</s>EDWARDS: Each one of these units you see behind us are one megawatt each. We're putting three megawatts to the grid. That serves approximately 15,000 homes.</s>WOLF: The county sells that electricity, earning about $650,000 each year.</s>PHADY IYYANKI, CEO, GE JENBACKER: This concept is, I would say, a role model in the United States. It's being driven by the county not by private fund. It's a profitable organization for American money, and all the profit goes to the county.</s>WOLF: That profit is not only keeping residential waste bills low but also funding the start of an 800-acre eco-complex.</s>EDWARDS: We're applying what is known as industrial ecology to waste management and i.e. making one man's garbage another man's treasure, entity to entity. And output stream of one industry is the input stream of another industry trying to make zero waste.</s>WOLF: For instance, next month construction begins on a bio-diesel production facility that will harness the heat emitted from these landfill powered generators. The heat breaks down the seed from these sunflowers converting them to bio-diesel. The crops are grown by local farmers within the eco-complex.</s>EDWARDS: What leaves our site is a commodity. What comes into our site, we're going to make a commodity out it.</s>WOLF: The county is not alone. They're partnering with private industry like this pallet factory and this lumber yard within the eco- complex. The wood waste from these facilities will eventually be converted into electricity. Plans are also set to convert waste water to power as well as on-site plastic recycling. This entire green initiative has been the number one priority for the county's board of commissioners.</s>LYNN LAIL, BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, CATAWBA COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: I think the biggest overall benefit will be if we see this facility grow and become an economic development tool that will help create jobs for our community.</s>EDWARDS: We improve the cost of services. We improve our environment. We include every aspect of vocation within our county that we can touch, and it's a win-win for everyone.</s>WOLF: A victory that will benefit the economy and the planet. Reynolds Wolf, CNN, Newton, North Carolina.</s>VELSHI: Up next, why Richard Quest is fired up about the "#Cash for Clunkers" program.