WHY ENERGY RECOVERY?
There are only two sustainable options to manage post-recycling waste: waste recovery and controlled landfilling. Since landfills are being phased out for environmental and space reasons, waste recovery remains the most viable long-term option to sustainable waste management.
WHY NOT 100% RECYCLING?
Although possible in theory, no city has ever achieved to manage its waste with smart 100% recycling only, or has even come close to it. A zero-waste solution is not possible without energy recovery.
DOES WASTE RECOVERY COMPETE WITH RECYCLING?
It does not. They are complementary solutions. All countries and states that use waste recovery are also very strong in recycling (source). We still want to recycle as large a fraction of waste as possible.
HOW ABOUT EMISSIONS?
While thermochemical conversion technologies are considered emissions free, waste-to-energy is one of the lowest emitters amongst high temperature processes, partly because of the mandatory air filters. The Earth Engineering Centre at the City College of New York has calculated that 100 years of a waste-to-energy plant operation produces the same relative concentrations of dioxins as 15 minutes of fireworks.
