Abstract
The waste management industry across the European Union (EU) has undergone radical change following the recognition that a move towards a sustainable society is essential for humankind. To this end, the EU has targeted household recycling targets of 50% by 2020 and 70% by 2030 in a bid to move towards a more sustainable and resource efficient society. Despite such targets and a number of relevant progresses in technology (such as incineration, composting, and anaerobic digestion), there are several challenges facing the municipal solid waste sector. The purpose of this review is to assess the EU, UK and local policies that are affecting the way waste is treated, Greater Manchester (GM) in the United Kingdom (UK), will be used as an example. The review focuses upon anaerobic digestion as a choice technology for waste management and assesses the influences of policies upon the application of anaerobic digestion at the EU and local level, finding that at current rates of recycling, local and national targets will be missed by approximately 7.3% in the year 2030, even in the best case scenario where the maximum amount of biowaste is managed under the current operational capacity. The review concludes that in order to improve the recycling bio-waste capacity on a local, national, and EU level, the introduction of the AD must be increased tremendously.
Highlights
In recent years, the European Commission has shifted the waste paradigm towards the circumstance that gives value to waste as a commodity while stimulating improvements in resource productivity
The review focuses upon anaerobic digestion as a choice technology for waste management and assesses the influences of policies upon the application of anaerobic digestion at the European Union (EU) and local level, finding that at current rates of recycling, local and national targets will be missed by approximately 7.3% in the year 2030, even in the best case scenario where the maximum amount of biowaste is managed under the current operational capacity
That is safeguarded by an effective policy and targets such as: recycling municipal waste by 65%, packaging waste by 75%, and reducing landfill to most of 10% of municipal waste by 2030, with tangible measures like a ban on landfilling of separately collected waste and promotion of economic instruments to discourage landfilling to sort the problems on the ground, to challenge the different situations across Member States, and ban the export of hazardous waste outside Europe [3]
Summary
The European Commission has shifted the waste paradigm towards the circumstance that gives value to waste as a commodity while stimulating improvements in resource productivity. That is safeguarded by an effective policy and targets such as: recycling municipal waste by 65%, packaging waste by 75%, and reducing landfill to most of 10% of municipal waste by 2030, with tangible measures like a ban on landfilling of separately collected waste and promotion of economic instruments to discourage landfilling to sort the problems on the ground, to challenge the different situations across Member States, and ban the export of hazardous waste outside Europe [3] This approach is anticipated to play a significant role in the quality of life of both EU citizens and the environment [2]. It assesses the current state of biowaste management in the EU, and GM, and identifies a need for improvement of the current systems
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