Abstract
Municipal waste management and Waste-to-Energy (WtE) potentials in New Zealand are discussed. The existing main waste management strategy of New Zealand is to reduce, reuse and recycle waste. Most of the remaining waste is currently disposed of in landfills. WtE options were explored in this study as a more sustainable waste treatment alternative in the country, while making use of the annual 30.8 petajoule of available waste energy in New Zealand. Four WtE technology options were discussed and compared, namely incineration, anaerobic digestion, gasification and pyrolysis. The aspects in comparison were air pollution, cost, side products, capacity, commercial maturity, energy efficiency and type of waste treated. Special emphasis was given to environment-friendliness and cost. From the comparison, it was found that anaerobic digestion seems to be the most attractive solution for the country as it is environment-friendly, economical and the concept is consistent with New Zealand’s existing waste management strategy. The major limitations of anaerobic digestion are its low energy production efficiency and its limited waste treatment capacity. Hence, an effective national waste reduction and recycling strategy is crucial for the success of this waste management option.
Highlights
The World Bank predicted the global municipal waste generation will increase from 1.3 billion tons per year in 2012 to 2.2 billion tons per year in 2025 [1]
The goal of this study is to investigate the potentials of WtE technology to solve the waste issue of New Zealand
According to an OECD report in 2017 [25], the amount of municipal solid waste generated in New Zealand has increased steadily alongside population, gross domestic product and private final consumption in recent years
Summary
The World Bank predicted the global municipal waste generation will increase from 1.3 billion tons per year in 2012 to 2.2 billion tons per year in 2025 [1]. There is a good symmetry between the ever-increasing energy demand and the amount of municipal waste generated, making the Waste-to-Energy (WtE) option even more attractive It is noted, that the concept has its own issues that will be discussed further below. A number of government policies have been put in place to overcome this issue with varying degrees of effectiveness, and various options have been considered to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, including recycling and WtE technologies. To reach this objective, a review of the current waste management condition in the country is carried out. The comparisons will focus on their air pollution, cost, side products, capacity, commercial maturity, efficiency and type of waste treated associated with each technology
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