Facts

- Essential part of a sustainable Waste Management chain

- Fully complementary to recycling

- Produces valuable and renewable energy

- Has a lower carbon footprint by

      * Avoiding Methane emissions from landfill

      * Offsetting the use of fossil fuels for energy production

- Removes all toxic substances from residual waste streams

- Up to 95% Landfill diversion rate

- Helps diversify energy sources

- Reliable European technology

Today, the energy produced from waste in Europe is enough to supply the equivalent of Ireland or Slovakia with electricity.

ESWET praises the ambitious recycling targets enacted by the Waste Framework Directive and, in complement, works at developing the potential 4-fold increase in the energy produced from waste compared to today.

Carefully collected and sorted residual waste contains on average 10,000kJ/kg of energy.

Therefore, each kilogram of waste could power a 12W eco-bulb (~60W) for 75 hours.

A study from 2008 (p.8) hosted on the European Environmental Bureau website shows data indicating that those countries in Europe that have the highest recycling rates are also the ones where Waste-to-Energy is the most present.

The European Commission keeps track of pollutants emitted by a wide range of punctual sources, including Waste to Energy. Browse through the data on their site.

Since 2005, the German Environment Ministry, then headed by Mr. Trittin from the Green Party, has acknowledged that Waste to Energy does not contribute significantly to Dioxins emissions. The document by the German Environment Ministry stating this can be found online.

See a more recent position of the German Green Party on Energy-from-Waste

In German and English on the Lebensministerium website