A brochure titled "Waste in (mega) watt out" has been published by CEWEP, the Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants. Several figures contain information about Waste-to-Energy and its role in a sustainable waste management.

Instead of a foreword it is said: "Waste is a resource. However, almost 50 percent of Municipal Solid Waste across the EU 27 is still landfilled, although landfill gases (methane) contribute significantly to global warming (21 times more than CO2). How can Member States, who still mainly rely on landfilling, fulfil the aims of the European Landfill Directive, i.e. diverting biodegradable waste from landfills and progress beyond this aim? What are the alternatives and how can they be intelligently combined to achieve maximum reduction of environmental impact?"

According to European Environment Agency, CEWEP says that "recycling of municipal waste and incineration with energy recovery are used as complementary tools to divert waste away from landfills and to recover some economic value from waste". And: "Figures on municipal waste shows that those countries with the lowest level of landfilling of municipal waste (less than 25 percent) also have the highest levels of both recycling and incineration with energy recovery. In contrast, countries with a medium level of landfill (25–50 percent) have a medium rate of recycling and limited incineration with energy recovery. Lastly, countries with a high share of landfill (greater than 50 percent) have neither much recycling nor incineration with energy recovery."

The brochure "Waste in (mega) watt out" is available in Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish under
cewep.eu. The english version can be downloaded under cewep.eu/storage.

Quelle: CEWEP

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