Connecticut has five plants that convert solid household waste into electricity. The largest and most advanced is the Mid-Connecticut Project plant. All are operated by the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, or CCRA.

According to an article in an area paper, CRRA sells 52 megawatts a day to Select Energy Services, a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities. That's enough to power a city of 72,000 people, and last year it earned the Mid-Conn project $18.7 million, 20 percent of its revenues.

Raw trash passes through a series of processes to break it down into combustible chunks. The biggest problem so far: propane canisters that escape the sieves, magnets and humans. Those canisters have been known to explode in the crushing process, blowing the roof off the facility. The solution: a more resilient roof.

After an hour, a family's turkey remains are unrecognizable fist-sized chunks of loose, whitish residue that now qualifies as burnable fuel. From here it rides a conveyor belt across a road to the "power block."

This eleven-story plant was built in the 1920s to burn coal. The fuel is blown into 60-foot-high furnaces lined with water-filled steel tubes. The resulting steam drives two turbines that produce electricity, which is fed into the grid.