{"id":9057,"date":"2014-03-05T09:15:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T17:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/trash-can\/"},"modified":"2024-05-22T16:03:50","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T23:03:50","slug":"trash-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/trash-can\/","title":{"rendered":"Trash Can"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                          \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/story-1539-top-768x432.jpeg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/story-1539-top-1920x1080.jpeg 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/story-1539-top-1280x720.jpeg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/story-1539-top-768x432.jpeg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  role=\"none\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Surveying the mountains of garbage surrounding her, alumna Julia McGinnis said, \u201cI see energy. I see money.\u201d Photos by John Livzey.\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=alumni\">Alumni<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Trash Can<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Bits of greasy pizza boxes, Styrofoam peanuts, apple cores all churning into one, massive heap. Think this is just garbage? Rubbish! Some is turned into electricity. Alumna Julia McGinnis knows that . . . Trash Can.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Pamela J. Johnson<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">March 5, 2014<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 2.26076008c-1.08745421 1.058837-1.68841575 2.518315-1.68841575 4.0350275 0 1.5167124.60096154 2.9475732 1.68841575 4.0350274 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class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">Smartly dressed in a sleeveless harlequin green fitted dress accented by jade-stoned, gold jewelry and patent leather high heels, Julia McGinnis gazed at a mound of waste 200-feet wide being smashed down by giant roaming bulldozers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">She may have looked like someone gave her woefully wrong directions to the afternoon board meeting. But despite the smell of decomposing garbage, McGinnis was right at home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cI see energy,\u201d she said, looking around her. \u201cI see money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">McGinnis loves a little trash talk. The USC Dornsife alumna works at Orange County Waste &amp; Recycling, headquartered in Santa Ana, Calif. The manager overseeing legislative and regulatory affairs, public information and renewable energy, McGinnis was visiting the Olinda Alpha Landfill in Brea, Calif. Downplaying the aroma, she noted that the facility moves trash and covers it so quickly that the odor is far milder than at most landfills.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">She has reason to be proud. The landfill is the country\u2019s third-largest gas-to-energy project, which generates about 37.5 megawatts of electricity and millions of dollars annually.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cWe\u2019re harvesting the landfill gas and we\u2019re making electricity with it,\u201d McGinnis said of Olinda Alpha Landfill, among 86 facilities in the United States converting trash gas into energy. \u201cWe receive some of the money. So, by being sustainable and proactive, we can keep our refuse rates to the general public low.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">McGinnis and Don Ries, Orange County\u2019s program manager for renewable energy, enthusiastically described how the bulldozers crush 6,000 tons of trash per day before workers cover the refuse with dirt. Each evening, all open piles of trash are blanketed in soil or tarps. In some areas the garbage is 300 feet deep. What was once a canyon next to Chino Hills State Park is slowly filling. And while trash rots in landfills, it creates methane gas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">McGinnis will tell you methane is an extremely powerful greenhouse gas. One pound of methane traps 25 times more heat into the atmosphere than a pound of carbon dioxide. Methane is also the major ingredient in natural gas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">But when methane is trapped in landfills, it can be captured and used to produce electricity or heat buildings. Launched in the early 1980s, the technology turning trash into energy is being used at the Olinda Alpha Landfill to power 26,000 homes in nearby Anaheim. Each evening, more than a foot of dirt covers the newest garbage. It takes about a year to start emitting usable methane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">McGinnis and her colleague pointed out wide, long pipes snaking along the dirt. After the refuse decomposes and methane gas rises to the top of the landfill, it is collected in these perforated pipes. The pipes wind their way to a nearby processing plant, where the methane is burned to produce heat or generate electricity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">Capturing methane before it gets into the atmosphere also helps reduce the effects of climate change. Over two decades, the plant is expected to reduce emissions equivalent to burning 144,000 railcars worth of coal, McGinnis said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">Opponents of trash gas-to-energy claim the effort takes attention and urgency away from recycling and composting. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has lauded the project for using a local source to generate energy while protecting the atmosphere and strengthening the economy.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/Trash2-1539.jpg\" alt=\"A woman looks off camera with a factory in the background.\" width=\"350\" height=\"225\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cWorking on sustainability issues feels good, it feels right,\u201d McGinnis said. \u201cI keep remembering that quote, \u2018We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.\u2019 \u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">Still, trash can be a hard sell. On a hill overlooking the $130 million plant \u2014 mostly paid for with federal funds \u2014 McGinnis tilted her head toward a large white plume emanating from a chimney.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cThat is not smoke, that\u2019s steam,\u201d she said. \u201cThe public looks at that and sometimes assumes it\u2019s proof we are contaminating the atmosphere. We\u2019re not. But that\u2019s part of my job; to help educate the public.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">McGinnis\u2019 road to refuse has taken many twists and turns. Majoring in political science as an undergraduate, she had planned to attend law school until a few months before graduating <em>magna cum laude<\/em> in 2003.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cI had this epiphany,\u201d she said. \u201cLaw just wasn\u2019t in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">She couldn\u2019t envision herself in court arguing cases. Wanting to be part of the decision-making process on policy, she earned her master\u2019s degree in public administration from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy <em>magna cum laude <\/em>in 2006.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">Raised by a single mother in the military,\u00a0 McGinnis has always been drawn to the public sector. As a girl, her family lived on the Travis Air Force Base. When her mother, Patricia Henry, retired and took a job with the state, the family moved 44 miles east to Sacramento, Calif.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cIt\u2019s always been public service, public service, public service,\u201d McGinnis said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">Ambition is part of her nature. In high school, she was an advanced student already taking community college courses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cI\u2019m probably overly ambitious,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it was all internal. My mother set the bar, but then she stepped back and said, \u2018I trust you.\u2019 I would come home with a B-plus and be devastated. She would say, \u2018For crying out loud, ease up on yourself.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u00a0McGinnis learned about USC during a higher education event at her high school.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cNo one in my family had gone to college so I didn\u2019t really know anything about schools,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI knew about CSUS [California State University, Sacramento] and about Harvard only because I had book covers that said \u2018Harvard.\u2019 But that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">When recruiters from USC started speaking with her, she began with, \u201cYou\u2019ll have to forgive me but I\u2019ve never heard of USC.\u201d\u00a0 McGinnis was impressed with what she heard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cSo I started researching USC on my own and told my mother, \u2018This is a great school, it\u2019s where I want to go.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">While McGinnis pursued higher education, Henry returned to school to earn her bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in social work at CSUS.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cI really took to academia,\u201d\u00a0 McGinnis said. \u201cI have a fascination with learning and creating an expertise in an area. Whether it\u2019s water management, homeland security and counterterrorism, or waste management. I used to take it for granted that everyone\u2019s intrinsically motivated. But not everyone is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">The examples she threw out were not arbitrary. She has held high-powered jobs in all of those fields. After graduation, McGinnis was offered a position at the U.S. Department of the Interior\u2019s Bureau of Reclamation. At 25, she became the chief of the bureau\u2019s Enterprise Program Management Office, among the Department of the Interior\u2019s youngest managers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cI just applied,\u201d she said of landing the job. \u201cEveryone thought I had some sort of connection because it was really unheard of to bring in someone to the program at a managerial level who was a complete outsider.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">It helped, she said, that the person who became her supervisor had completed an overseas program at USC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cWe had something in common,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving USC as my backing spoke volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">At the Department of the Interior, she oversaw California\u2019s Central Valley Project, one of the nation\u2019s biggest water conservation developments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cI had never worked with water before,\u201d she said. \u201cI found my groove in that position.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">With a background in strategic planning, she implemented changes in operations and accounting for the bureau, which manages the country\u2019s water supply through reservoirs, canals, dams and power plants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">Her implementations are credited with saving the bureau more than $10 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">Working with high-level government energy officials and political leaders, she addressed issues surrounding drought, climate change and population growth. She became an expert in water shortage and management \u2014 among the state\u2019s most pressing issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">The bureau was McGinnis\u2019 first career stop dealing with the environment. When it comes to a cause, she usually can be found volunteering to help those in need. She spent part of a recent summer aiding earthquake victims in Haiti. \u201cI\u2019ve always had a heart for people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">Also, she\u2019s always been environmentally conscious.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cI believe in recycling and being a good steward of our resources,\u201d she said. \u201cSo that\u2019s always been kind of a tickler in the back of my mind. My family\u2019s also Native American, so I think that stewardship of nature has been an underlying strand in my life. But I never thought of it as a career path.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">Yet when she left the bureau for a position at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, she missed pursuing an environmental cause. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) assigned her to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif. As the aviation security liaison for airlines, McGinnis served more than 9 million passengers and a workforce of more than 450 employees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">That meant putting out fires when crises erupted at all hours of the day and night. Power outages, accusations, threats \u2014 all security issues that occur at an airport \u2014 McGinnis handled them as liaison between TSA and the airlines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cIt was, \u2018Ok, crisis averted, move on, crisis averted, move on,\u2019 \u201d she recalled. \u201cI was always focused on one crisis and never looking at the bigger picture. It didn\u2019t force me to think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">She wanted to put her organizational development skills to work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cMy brain needs to be stimulated and I need opportunities to utilize those skills,\u201d she said. Waste and recycling were things she could get behind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">\u201cWaste management is a fascinating field,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a completely different arena for me and I have such respect for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">She also wants to better balance life and work. This winter she will exchange wedding vows with Jason Lizana, an accountant, during an intimate church ceremony in Orange County. She\u2019s already enjoying how her newest position has given her the perspective to prioritize her role as stepmother to 3-year-old William.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-CaslonNEW\">In her waste management role, she is working with county supervisors on regulations and legislation affecting Orange County waste. At 32, she hasn\u2019t ruled out the possibility of someday running for public office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWorking on sustainability issues feels good, it feels right,\u201d she said. \u201cI keep recalling the quote, \u2018We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/the-sustainability-issue\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Read more stories from USC Dornsife Magazine&#8217;s Fall 2013-Winter 2014 issue<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bits of greasy pizza boxes, Styrofoam peanuts, apple cores all churning into one, massive heap. Think this is just garbage? Rubbish! Some is turned into electricity. Alumna Julia McGinnis knows that . . . Trash Can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":20036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,15],"tags":[264,96,247],"class_list":["post-9057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-sustainability","tag-alumni","tag-natural-sciences","tag-sustainability"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Trash Can<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/trash-can\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trash Can\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bits of greasy pizza boxes, Styrofoam peanuts, apple cores all churning into one, massive heap. Think this is just garbage? Rubbish! Some is turned into electricity. Alumna Julia McGinnis knows that . . . Trash Can.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/trash-can\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"USC Dornsife News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uscdornsife\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-05T17:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-22T23:03:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/story-1539-top-1024x589.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"589\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Liu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uscdornsife\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" 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