We tend to look at the environmental food chain as the businesses and organizations that generate the waste and pollution in one camp and the service companies that manage it in another.

But the haulers, landfill operators, recyclers and others are in the unique position of living in both worlds. While their primary reason for existence is environmental management, they´re also businesses with their own generation issues -- and opportunities.

Just in this issue there is a story about paper maker and recycler Weyerhaeuser Co. joining with Chevron Corp. to produce biofuels from cellulosic biomass, using Weyerhaeuser´s forest product raw materials. Earlier this month Norcal Waste Systems Inc. said it has converted all its trucks that service San Francisco to a more environmentally friendly fuel, either biodiesel or liquefied natural gas. Waste Management Inc. is looking into projects such as installing wind turbines on its landfills, making biofuels from landfill gas and biodiesel from grease-trap waste. That´s just a few examples.

By the nature of what they do, solid waste and other environmental service companies do a great deal for the planet. Some will say the landfilling they do is hurting, not helping. But landfill operators aren´t setting public and private policy. Until better solutions are offered, in many cases, it´s the landfill or piling up outside your business or house.

Being already in the environmental glass house, the solid waste industry can be a strong example for other businesses. The industry is moving toward using cleaner fuels, both on its own and in the face of pending regulations. As trucking´s a big contributor to greenhouse gases, a move to greener fuels can have a huge positive impact. The aforementioned landfill gas provides tremendous opportunities to turn a byproduct into a useful feedstock.

The solid waste industry has always fought a negative image. Being leaders as environmental stewards is a great way to change that, and do good as well.

Allan Gerlat is editor of Waste News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.

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