Organic materials are a popular source of renewable biomass feedstock for biofuel or electricity, but a growing number of companies are turning waste of all kinds into a synthetic gas.

If there's anything Americans are good at, it's creating waste in abundance. Plasma converters superheat organic waste -- in the form of liquids or solids such as manure, industrial waste or medical waste -- at temperatures sufficient to break their molecular bonds and turn it into a plasma gas that can be converted into a natural gas.

Waste Management, which processes countless tons of waste per day, has started a joint venture with InEnTec of Bend, Oregon to turn medical and industrial waste into an energy source. InEnTec will use its plasma technology to process municipal waste.

Another collaboration is MagneGas, which is teaming with 5G Wireless Communications to create plasma refinery that will have the added environmental benefit of running on renewable power. The companies aim to build a refinery that can take electricity generated primarily by wind or solar power or a combination of both. Waste that would have otherwise wound up in landfills or cleaned through carbon-intensive processes can instead trade intermittent power for a gas that can be more efficiently stored or transported.

One of the oldest companies delivering plasma conversion technology is StarTech Environmental, which has been licensing its technology and building plants around the world, including the U.K., Poland and Panama.

This technology will enable companies that produce and process waste to create new revenues based on the energy value of materials that previously they had to pay a premium to have hauled away.

For centuries native peoples in the Americas and elsewhere have learned how to survive in difficult conditions by finding a use for every natural resource. In a way, plasma conversion plants copy that philosophy by finding a use for our unnatural waste as an energy source. Reducing the amount of waste by recycling or cutting down on materials going in is always preferable, but making energy from waste a worthwhile enterprise.

John Gartner is Editor in Chief of Matter Network and an Industry Analyst for Pike Research.