Officials say there's only one other operation like this in the state, in Cary.
WINSTON-SALEM -- A city can generate a lot of wastewater every day.
"We're talking in the neighborhood of about 36-37 million gallons a day of waste," said Winston-Salem Wastewater Superintendent Frank Crump.
The Twin City's Archie Ellege Wastewater Treatment Plant is a huge operation covering 75 acres. It produces some 25 tons of waste solids a day -- enough that the city had to spend $820,000 on disposal last year, and had to send some to landfills.
"It's not a very environmentally friendly way to get rid of the product; we wanted something that was beneficial reuse," said Crump.
News 14 Carolina's Bob Costner has more on Winston-Salem's effort to save on waste.
The city built a new dryer facility to recycle the wastewater sludge that went on line in May. After the waste is treated and much of the water removed, it's run through a huge dryer fueled by methane from the plant. The end product is pellets that look like what you'd find in a bag of fertilizer.
Crump says the city's paid about $30,000 a year for the pellets, by a contractor.
"It's used to fertilize or used as a soil amendment on pine trees to increase the yield he gets in his forestry," said Crump.
And the operation's set to handle future needs for the city. Officials say there's only one other operation like this in the state, in Cary.