5 Weird Ways To Generate Renewable Energy As concern grows for the climate and all eyes are on fossil fuels, the hunt is on for new ways of generating electricity. Traditional renewable energy sources have until now focused on harnessing the power of the sun or the wind or water. But traditions are meant to be broken--and that happens more often than you might think #1 Trash There is an abundance of trash in the world, and after all, you don’t need it for anything else anyway. So, as feedstocks go, it ticks all the right boxes: plentiful and free. In fact, plentiful is a bit of an understatement. Each year, every American generates 1,609 pounds of trash. Globally, the World Bank estimates that 2.01 billion metric tons (4.4 trillion pounds) of trash are produced each year. Australia, for one, has so much trash that its landfills will soon be overflowing, with Australians pitching 21 million tons of waste into landfills each year. The land down under is taking a n