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.

 

 

carboliq® - Direktverölung gemischter Kunststoffabfälle
© Witzenhausen-Institut für Abfall, Umwelt und Energie GmbH (4/2025)
Die Forderung nach Klimaneutralität dominiert die globale Diskussion über die Zukunft der Industriegesellschaft. Damit einher geht auch die Frage, wie der Umgang mit Kunststoffen in Zukunft erfolgen wird.

Nutzungskonflikt zwischen Carbon-Capture-Anlagen und Fernwärme?
© Witzenhausen-Institut für Abfall, Umwelt und Energie GmbH (4/2025)
Die EEW Energy from Waste GmbH (EEW) hat sich das Ziel gesetzt, bis 2045 klimaneutral zu werden. Mit 17 Standorten verfügt EEW über eine Verbrennungskapazität von ca. 5 Millionen Tonnen Abfall pro Jahr.

Abfall- und Kreislaufwirtschaft in Deutschland im internationalen Vergleich - Spitzenplatz oder nur noch Mittelmaß?
© Witzenhausen-Institut für Abfall, Umwelt und Energie GmbH (4/2025)
Neben der Umstellung der künftigen Energieversorgung auf ein zu 100 % erneuerbares Energiesystem ist die Abfall- und Kreislaufwirtschaft die zweite zentrale Säule im Rahmen der globalen Transformation in eine klimaneutrale Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft.

 

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