{"id":4784,"date":"2019-08-21T10:33:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T07:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=4784"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:29","slug":"rummaging-through-trash-to-find-clean-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/08\/21\/rummaging-through-trash-to-find-clean-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Rummaging Through Trash To Find Clean Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By UN Environment<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Landfills around the world are filling up.\nIn 2016, humanity generated over 2 billion tonnes of waste. In the next 30\nyears, that figure is expected to grow to 3.4 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where will all this waste end up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\u00a0recent report<\/a> by the UN Environment\u2019s International Environmental Technology Centre outlines one technology that has the potential to reduce the volume of waste entering landfills by up to 90 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waste-to-energy plants have been around for over 100 years, but today their use is on the rise, with many seeing the plants as a quick-fix solution to growing waste challenges. This phenomenon is especially apparent in Asia, where some 1,200 of the 1,700 plants worldwide are found. Japan alone maintains over 700. China is on track to increase the number of its plants by over 50 percent, according to Yuanyang Ou of SUS Environment, a Chinese investor and operator of waste-to-energy plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The core concept remains largely the same as\na century ago. Burn solid waste at high temperatures so that the waste is\neliminated and use the excess heat to power turbines and create electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, this would also produce\nsignificant amounts of ash and toxic gases. Today\u2019s waste-to-energy plants,\nhowever, are much cleaner. Advanced technologies help to burn waste at\nextremely high temperatures, which ensures complete combustion. Emissions are\nalso specially treated, which leaves minimal amounts of toxic byproducts like\nflue ash. Some tests have even shown that the air emitted by certain\nwaste-to-energy chimneys can be cleaner than the air flowing in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRemoving waste is the primary benefit of\nthese plants, but not the only one,\u201d says Ou. \u201cEnergy capture mechanisms ensure\nthat excess heat can be used for electricity generation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Globally, 1\u00a0percent of renewable energy already comes from waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keith Alverson, director of the UN Environment\nProgramme\u2019s International Environmental Technology Centre<\/a>, points out that the climate benefits of waste-to-energy\nextend beyond renewables. \u201cWaste-to-energy plants can also reduce greenhouse gas\nemissions compared to open burning and landfills,\u201d he says. \u201cOpen burning does\nnot happen at a high-enough temperature for complete combustion, so emissions\nare dirty. And in landfills, biomaterial will decompose and emit methane, a\npowerful greenhouse gas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they are typically clean, a mismanaged\nplant will produce unsafe byproducts, even with advanced emission control\ntechnologies. In countries where there are detailed regulations governing\nwaste-to-energy plants, it\u2019s less of an issue. But where countries don\u2019t have\nstrategies for maintenance and monitoring or guidelines on health and safety,\nthere is a much higher risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plants are also hungry beasts. A large-scale modern thermal waste-to-energy plant requires between 100,000\u2013300,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste per year over, delivered daily over its lifetime. If an operator can\u2019t procure enough waste, some plants could potentially drop below their optimal operating temperature. When that happens, efficiency drops and the risk of toxic emissions is increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an extreme scenario, operating a plant may mean a government has to import waste or add coal to the waste stream, just to feed the fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while a waste-to-energy plant may\nsignificantly reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, it does not\neliminate the need for them entirely. The residues that such a plant does\nproduce are hazardous and require safe disposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with all of the downsides, the increase\nin the number of waste-to-energy plants is not slowing down. While the refrain\nused to be NIMBY\u2014\u201cnot in my backyard\u201d \u2014these days it\u2019s just as likely to be\nPIMBY\u2014\u201cplease in my backyard\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe benefits of the plants are clear, but the technology is not without its problems,\u201d says Alverson. \u201cFor those countries eyeing the technology, getting the regulations and the legislation right will ensure the technology does more good than harm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the original article<\/a> on the UN Environment<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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