The Role of Waste-to-Energy in Sustainable Waste Management
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled (Richard P. Feynman).
In a society with a history of rapid growth such as Europe, the environment and its protection is one of the central issues it has to address.
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.
ASK - Unser Kooperationspartner
Unsere 3 aktuellsten Fachartikel
Europäische Rechtsvorgaben und Auswirkungen auf die Bioabfallwirtschaft in Deutschland
© Witzenhausen-Institut für Abfall, Umwelt und Energie GmbH (11/2025)
Bioabfälle machen 34 % der Siedlungsabfälle aus und bilden damit die größte Abfallfraktion im Siedlungsabfall in der EU. Rund 40 Millionen Tonnen Bioabfälle werden jährlich in der EU getrennt gesammelt und in ca. 4.500 Kompostierungs- und Vergärungsanlagen behandelt.
Vom Gärrest zum hochwertigen Gärprodukt - eine Einführung
© Witzenhausen-Institut für Abfall, Umwelt und Energie GmbH (11/2025)
Auch mittel- bis langfristig steht zu erwarten, dass die Kaskade aus anaerober und aerober Behandlung Standard für die Biogutbehandlung sein wird.
Die Mischung macht‘s - Der Gärrestmischer in der Praxis
© Witzenhausen-Institut für Abfall, Umwelt und Energie GmbH (11/2025)
Zur Nachbehandlung von Gärrest aus Bio- und Restabfall entwickelte Eggersmann den Gärrestmischer, der aus Gärresten und Zuschlagstoffen homogene, gut belüftbare Mischungen erzeugt. Damit wird den besonderen Anforderungen der Gärreste mit hohem Wassergehalt begegnet und eine effiziente Kompostierung ermöglicht.
