Incineration is certainly a hot topic these days – if you’ll excuse the pun, and my attendance of the ISWA Congress in October only served to reiterate this point. Since EU waste legislation changed, as discussed by Caroline Jackson, MEP, in this year’s review issue of WMW, incineration of waste can now be classed as ‘recovery’ rather than ‘disposal’ and the knock-on effects of this are being seen across Europe.
In context of the wider – and very fashionable – issues of ‘zero waste’ schemes and climate change, thermal treatment also has a vital role to play in giving us a way to take every bit of waste produced – even that which is considered unfit for recycling – and turn it into something valuable. There are many problems thrown up when one asks the seemingly simple question: ‘why not just turn all our waste into energy?’ One of the main issues faced by those developing new technologies in this field is the issue of funding, and this is examined by Peter Hemington on page 33 in the context of the UK market.
More highlights in this issue’s waste to energy special are a look at recovery of valuable waste streams from incineration ash (page 19), the development of a WTE facility in American Samoa (page 26) and the operation of flue gas systems within WTE plants (page 22). As well as these stories, we have our usual words of wisdom from collection & transport expert Malcolm Bates – this time looking at the new Faun/Mercedes diesel electric ‘Dual Power’ hybrid vehicle. Also we have a look at how recycling equipment is being used to produce RDF for the cement industry (page 61) and a report from Josef Barth, managing director of the European Compost Network, on the biowaste conference which took place in June this year (page 55).
It’s an exciting issue and our last of the year. I look forward to bringing you more top quality news and features from the world of waste in 2010.
Best regards
Claudine Capel
Editor, Waste Management World
P.S. Subscribe to the e-newsletter at www.waste-management-world.com.
