The municipal government of Puerto Cortés, on the northern Honduran coast, aims to become a “green municipality” through a nine-million-dollar project that would recycle garbage to generate 2.5 megawatts of electricity in the area. Juan Ferrando, of the United Nations Development Program, spelled it out for Tierramérica. The UNDP is promoting the initiative as part of a larger plan to promote renewable energy based on biomass.

A biodigestor will capture the gases released by the existing sanitary landfill, turning them into clean energy, said Allan Ramos, mayor of Puerto Cortés, the leading sea port in Honduras.

Construction of the biomass energy complex will begin in the next two months, with completion set for early 2012, when energy production will begin.