The Role of Waste-to-Energy in Sustainable Waste Management

Europe is a very densely populated region (average of 116 people per km2) and about 74 % of Europeans live in cities. In such conditions waste produced by our society has a huge impact on the environment causing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, and has a significant impact on the use of natural resources. With this in mind achieving sustainable waste management is a very significant challenge.

Environment is one of the areas with the largest number of policy measures in the European Union (together with agriculture and internal market). Since the 1970’s waste management has been on the environmental policy agenda. The policies aim to tackle issues such as: improvement of waste treatment and reduction of impact from waste disposal; recycling of waste; reduction of waste generation through the prevention approach, improvement of efficiency of resource use. Today waste is increasingly viewed as a resource. All the alternative waste treatment methods and how they can be intelligently combined to achieve maximum reduction of environmental impact have to be carefully considered.

The objective of European environmental policy is to allow the society to develop in a sustainable way. The notion of sustainable development is defined as: development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs. In particular this means that the main challenge for waste policy is to reduce the environmental and health impacts of waste and improve Europe’s resource efficiency, while ensuring that sustainable consumption does not exceed environmental capacity. The EU’s Sixth Environment Action Programme (2002-2012), which sets out the framework for environmental policy-making, identified waste prevention and management as one of four top priorities for European society.

In this light, let’s explore how Waste-to-Energy (waste incineration with energy recovery) has indeed an important role to play in sustainable waste management in Europe.

 

 

Stand der Pumpspeicher in Deutschland 2025
© Springer Vieweg | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH (12/2025)
Infolge des Ausbaus der Stromerzeugung aus erneuerbaren Energien ist ein erhöhter Speicherbedarf im Stromverbundnetz notwendig. Hierdurch steigt die Bedeutung von Pumpspeichern als bis auf weiteres einzige Möglichkeit für eine großmaßstäbliche Stromspeicherung.

Pumpspeicherkraftwerke - Empfehlungen zur Verkuerzung und Vereinfachung von Genehmigungsverfahren in Deutschland
© Springer Vieweg | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH (12/2025)
Die Genehmigungsverfahren sind sehr komplex sowie mit hohen Kosten und rechtlichen Unsicherheiten verbunden und dauern oftmals mehr als zehn Jahre.

Revitalisierung des Pumpspeicherwerks Happurg - Sanierung des Oberbeckens
© Springer Vieweg | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH (12/2025)
Im Rahmen der Revitalisierung des Pumpspeicherwerks Happurg haben im September 2024 auch die Arbeiten zur Sanierung des zugehörigen Oberbeckens begonnen.

 

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