Practical Sustainability Strategies, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 14The Circular Economy Through Energy Recovery

The circular economy has been defined (Chapter 10) as take, make, use, and reuse and reuse again and again. This basically refers to products that can be reused or reprocessed into another product. However, a last case alternative is to convert the product to some form of energy. This may be considered as a last resort in avoiding landfilling. The ultimate goal is to move away from waste disposal to the more efficient management of waste. It is important to convert all of the waste to resources—moving from that linear economy to a circular one and that is where waste-to-energy (WtE) initiatives make a difference as WtE is a sustainable, clean energy option for the future.

UNDERSTANDING WASTE MANAGEMENT

There are five options available within the waste management hierarchy: reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, and reject. Of course, the two most ideal scenarios are to reduce and reuse. Both prevent the generation of waste and ensure the direct reuse of waste materials without additional processing. This is closely followed by recycle and recover, the stages of waste management where the value of waste starts to be realized in the form of WtE initiatives. An example of recovery includes the incineration of waste with a high level of energy recovery and the reprocessing of waste into materials that can be used as a solid, liquid, or gaseous fuel, for example, the anaerobic digestion of organic waste to produce fertilizer and ...