Abstract
In 2015 the European Commission issued a package of documents on Circular Economy concerning an integrated revision of legislative proposals on waste management. The aim was to stimulate a European transition towards a circular economy concept, which is expected to foster competitiveness, sustainable economic growth and new jobs generation. Three indicators are proposed in this paper to contribute to the assessment of the energy recovery management performance from MSW in a scenario of circular economy: a) referring to MSW directly used (RMSW) or indirectly used (SRF) as input of thermochemical plants, an indicator can be the percentage of waste having LHV > 13MJ/kg; b) referring to the MSW directly or indirectly used as input of thermochemical plants, the percentage of waste having ash recovered; c) referring to food waste, percentage of this stream sent to anaerobic digestion. The above indicators, proposed and discussed in this paper, have to be integrated with other ones in order to complete the quantification of the role of MSW management in term of energy recovery under a circular economy strategy. It is not the aim of the present paper to give a comprehensive solution to this complex issue.
Highlights
World cities generate about 1.3-1.9 billion tonnes of solid waste per year
The common action plan proposed by the European Union (EU) for Circular Economy (CE), considers specific key targets for all the member states such as: to reach up to a recycling common target of 65% of municipal waste and 75% of packaging waste by 2030; to reduce landfill to maximum of 10% of municipal waste by 2030; to prohibit landfilling of separately collected waste through the promotion of economic tools; to have clear and simplified definitions, methods and standards for recycling rates all over EU; to have concrete forms that promote the close-loop of the re-use material option; to stimulate EU towards a sustainable market place by offering greener products and service programs that support recovery and recycling systems
In the most extreme cases the percentage of organic fraction in Residual Municipal Solid Waste (RMSW) may fall below 10%
Summary
World cities generate about 1.3-1.9 billion tonnes of solid waste per year. The common action plan proposed by the EU for CE, considers specific key targets for all the member states such as: to reach up to a recycling common target of 65% of municipal waste and 75% of packaging waste by 2030; to reduce landfill to maximum of 10% of municipal waste by 2030; to prohibit landfilling of separately collected waste through the promotion of economic tools; to have clear and simplified definitions, methods and standards for recycling rates all over EU; to have concrete forms that promote the close-loop of the re-use material option; to stimulate EU towards a sustainable market place by offering greener products and service programs that support recovery and recycling systems. The effects of material recovery maximization are discussed in terms of effects on the strategies of energy recovery
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