OK Company Hopes To One Day Power Home By Turning Trash Into Energy

A new company is working to, one day, use your trash to power your kitchen appliances.

The company, RE:PODS, is developing a prototype that turns waste into electricity – all while bringing jobs to Oklahoma.

Thousands of pounds of trash end up in landfills every day; but if the company can get enough investors to buy into its idea, plastic bottles and crumpled napkins could one day energize your coffee pot or an entire home.

In the cult classic Back to the Future, Marty McFly and Doc Brown used garbage to fuel their time traveling car.

That was a futuristic fantasy, but RE:PODS -- Renewable Energy Power on Command -- CEO Carey Warren said now the idea isn't too farfetched.

"RE:PODS is a mobile waste to energy system that can take anything organic and turn it into electricity," Warren said.

Instead of powering cars, for the last six years, Warren's company has worked to use trash to create electricity.

Starting first with simple items like coffee pots; but one day the goal is to provide electricity to military outpost and companies, and, eventually, for homes.

Warrens said, “Within five to seven years of our first implementation, we will be able to reduce the size of this so that it will go into a refrigerator-size container you can put in in your garage."

All the company needs to do it is a patent pending machine and a lot of garbage - much of it could come from overflowing landfills.

"If we can eliminate landfills or we can decrease landfills or shrink them then it's to our advantage," said Gregg Oswalt with RE:PODS.

Company representatives spent Thursday explaining RE:PODS to potential investors while touring the Tulsa Gas Technologies CNG building.

Representatives said since Oklahoma thrives on energy, the state is a great place to get the new wave of electricity grounded.

Warren said, "Our system for the state of Oklahoma is about jobs, jobs, jobs."

After more field testing, RE:PODS plans to implement full-scale production.