When the waste we create leaves our homes, where does it go? In the EU, 4.8 tonnes of waste were generated by each resident in 2020, 39.2% of which was processed and recycled. The majority (55.6%) arrived at landfill or backfilled, either within its country of origin (32.2%) or exported abroad (67.8%), while a fraction – less than 6.5% – was converted to energy.
This is a profoundly wasted opportunity. In urban municipalities where there is a large concentration of residual household waste, energy-from-waste (EfW) has material advantages over its alternatives, in particular landfill. Efficient EfW conversion reduces the amount of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emitted into the atmosphere compared to landfill, which is a materially positive environmental benefit. EfW requires less space. And, with optimised EfW plant design, society’s residual waste can be converted into reliable baseload electricity generation and residual heat from this process can be used to heat households through district heating networks.
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