An opinion article on EurActiv.com says the European Union is far exceeding its intended recycling levels in its effort to capitalize on energy from waste (EfW).
The article is written by Adam Baddeley, head of energy at Eunomia Research and Consulting of Bristol. Baddeley states that an increasing trend in northern Europe to incinerate and harness energy from waste may be unviable because of accelerating recycling levels. This will lead to a fall in residual waste arisings and overcapacity for residual waste treatment in Europe, he states.
A report published by Eunomia in May 2016 examined the treatment capacity of 11 European counties. Of these, five countries have more EfW capacity than their amount of residual waste requires. Germany has the greatest overcapacity at 2.7 million tonnes. Poland (19.8 million tonnes) and France (18.9 million tonnes) have the greatest surplus of waste treatment capacity.
In an effort to fill this overcapacity, some of these countries are importing residual waste from other member states. Nevertheless, according to the Baddely, there is still great disparity in the recycling progress between member states. He adds that this problem can only be effectively addressed if these countries learn to use their neighbours’ surplus infrastructure while boosting their own recycling rates.
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