Waste-to-energy

Abstract

This chapter shows that municipal and other waste forms make a significant contribution to GHG emissions and have an adverse impact on other environmental factors (e.g., health, water quality, air, etc.) in those regions where waste management systems are rudimentary or non-existent. Waste-to-energy provides a very limited amount of electricity or heat on a global basis and has virtually no contribution in either Africa or Latin America. There is a wide variety of Municipal solid waste (MSW) production rates between countries in Africa related to GDP per capita, and variations in national policies. In Latin America the average values of MSW production rates are significantly higher but are less related to GDP per capita than other socio-economic factors that are difficult to identify. Landfill gas and biogas projects are increasing in frequency within Africa and Latin America. For small communities, biogas digesters using animal and human manure could provide cooking solutions while also providing supplementary benefits to sewage treatment. A number of programmes are in place in Africa to increase the use of biogas in domestic applications. Therefore, instead of carbon capture and storage in landfills, which generally occurs at the beginning of the resource flows, the principle of carbon capture, transformation and reuse adding waste-to-energy paths in the cycle could be further developed and applied throughout the whole socio-industrial metabolism.