Revolutionising Waste Management: Producing Green Energy through Waste
Do we ever sit and wonder what happens to the waste generated in our households? Yes, they get picked up by our local waste collectors, but what next? They either end up in landfills or are incinerated. Although municipalities strongly urge people to separate their garbage, it’s likely that the segregated garbage is thrown into a mixed pile with wet and dry waste. As a result, large amounts of trash are left untreated. Out of the 43 million tonnes of the waste collected, only 11.9 Million Tonnes are treated, and the remaining 31 Million Tonnes are dumped in landfill sites. Globally, 2.01 billion tonnes of municipal solid garbage is produced globally each year, with at least 33 percent of that is not treated. The average amount of garbage produced per person per day in the world is 0.74 kilogrammes, but that varies from 0.11 to 4.54 kilos. This highlights the flawed system of waste disposal and management in of our world.
Inefficient waste management systems are an alarming issue. Fortunately, we have a better option. How about we turn these piles of trash into energy?
What is Waste-to-Energy?
The phrase “waste to energy” (WtE) refers to technologies that turn non-recyclable garbage into usable energy sources like heat, fuels, and electricity. Waste-to-energy or energy-from-waste is a form of energy recovery.
Why green energy from waste?
The elements that sustain life on Earth—water, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide—flow continuously through cycles of regenerative growth, decay, and rebirth in the biological metabolism. The biological metabolism accrues ‘natural reuse’ rather than creating material liabilities. Waste for one species is food for another. Things grow, then die, and nutrients return to the soil safely. This is nature’s cradle to cradle cycle.
But as people, we’ve chosen a “linear course of action”. We want, we produce, and we discard. We replace our old phones when a new one is released, and we instantaneously toss clothes with the slightest of fades. The journey of our purchase reaching the bins have become significantly shorter. We need easy access to products and carelessly dispose them without a second thought! Each time we do this, we’re eating into a finite supply of resources and often producing toxic waste. Can we alter our perspectives from a linear approach in order to run a circular economy?
How can our waste build capital rather than reduce it?
Waste management is a significant issue in developing nations, and the industry receives incredibly little funding, which has adverse effects on society and the environment.
A more general definition of waste to energy is the process of taking something that one person does not want and turning it into something that the other needs. Changing the way we use energy generally by decarbonizing and distributing. Thus reusing our waste and creating capital through it.
It’s about energy and reevaluating the operating system as a whole. With creativity and invention, we can truly reimagine and create our future, giving us a chance to open new horizons and views rather than staying mired in the difficulties of the present.
Energy Generation through WtE in different countries.
1. US
Waste-to-energy (WTE) has been a tough sell in the U.S. There are currently 75 WTE plants in the U.S., down from 87 roughly ten years ago. Two facilities have closed since 2016. But a new $672 million mass burn facility, the first in the US in more than 15 years, began operating commercially in Palm Beach County, Florida, in 2015. It produces 96 MW of electricity, which is sufficient to run around 40,000 houses and businesses.
2. EUROPE
Waste-to-energy (WTE) is flourishing in Europe. There are 499 WtE Plants operating in Europe (This does not include hazardous waste incineration plants). These plants thermally treat 99 Million tonnes of waste every year. In 2019, the 499 waste-to-energy facilities produced primary energy equal to 13.8 billion m3 of natural gas, which is equivalent to around 9% of the natural gas imported by the EU from Russia. In Europa, Germany, France and UK are the leading countries on energy recovery from MSW resources
3. CHINA
As per the International Energy Agency (IEA), China has around 7.3 gigawatts of installed waste to energy capacity, with its 339 plants during 2017. • China is one of the prominent countries, that has installed the world’s largest incineration plant (The Shenzhen East waste-to-energy plant) in 2019. The plant has a capacity of processing 2.7 million tonnes of waste per year and is capable of generating 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours of power per year.
4. THAILAND
The Thai government has established subsidies and tax incentives for various waste-to-energy plants, including incineration, gasification, fermentation and landfill gas capture. Installed capacity currently stands at 203 megawatts.
Waste to energy data worldwide:
Waste - to Energy (WtE)
Using WtE technologies, non-recyclable waste is transformed into valuable forms of energy. For example, Waste is heated during combustion, creating superheated steam that powers turbogenerators to produce energy.
Given that most towns are running out of landfill sites—the conventional means of disposing of waste—waste management has become essential. Governments must put into place efficient and sustainable waste management strategies, including WTE technologies, due to the steadily declining amount of available land and the burgeoning urban population.