Sep. 18--NORRIDGEWOCK -- When Chris DeSantis, vice president for Waste Management, New England, told his children what he would be doing in Maine on Thursday, he put it in very simple terms.

DeSantis told his kids that the company's new Crossroads Landfill gas-to-energy plant is what their future will look like, as people learn to harness what once was waste and turn it into electrical power.

"Children are learning that waste is a really valuable resource," he said. "As they get older and take over responsibility of this world, it's an opportunity for them to keep pushing and identify alternative sources of energy.

"Waste Management has the capacity to take the contents of our kitchen waste basket and convert that into energy that can power our kitchen lights. It takes progressive thinking, courage and innovative solutions to change the world."

DeSantis' remarks came Thursday during the dedication of the multimillion-dollar project.

The plant taps decomposing waste in the Norridgewock landfill, harnesses the resulting methane gas and turns it into electrical power -- enough to light 3,500 homes for the next 20 years.

On hand for the ribbon-cutting at the Waste Management site off U.S. Route 2 was Gov. John Baldacci, along with many state, county and local officials.

Helping out in the ceremony Thursday were students from Coburn Academy, a private school in Skowhegan run by Linda Quinn, one of three Somerset County Commissioners. Quinn agreed that recycling, reusing and renewing is the future hope for today's young people.

"This is very exciting because this is the future," Quinn said. "For a long time, we consumed all that stuff and then threw it away -- these kids are learning to put back."

Based in Houston, Texas, Waste Management provides collection, transfer, recycling and disposal services nationwide. The company's 111 landfill-gas projects generate the equivalent of 500 megawatts of energy, enough to power about 400,000 homes and replace the equivalent of 2 million tons of coal.

"I'm very impressed with the facility -- this is not your father's landfill," Baldacci said during Thursday morning's ceremonies. "It's Yankee ingenuity at its best, it's being able to create ripple benefits, it's about being more energy secure and independent. Our country is recognizing that we cannot be dependent on foreign sources of energy."

The governor said that independence will be accomplished with trash-to-gas-to-energy projects such as the Waste Management model, as well as with wood, wind and solar sources.