What is Waste to Energy (WtE), and is it practical and clean? This concept of using heat to burn waste and generate power has been around since 1874 in the United Kingdom, followed by the first U.S. plant in 1885 in New York. It originated as a way to manage waste, but evolved into a two-prong benefit of capturing energy from the heat, as well. Denmark opened the first WtE facility in 1904, and they started to emerge in the U.S. by the mid 1900’s – today with 520 plants in Europe and 75 in the U.S.

Negative impacts from water discharge and air emissions gained politicians’ and citizens’
attention in the 1960’s, which eventually resulted in the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts in 1970. New standards and restrictions on particulate emissions were established, and those facilities that refused to comply closed. While the process at WtE plants is more sophisticated today–with advanced air pollution control technologies–concerns about particulate matter and residue from dioxins, sulfur dioxide, ash, and water pollution are still present.

Most cement kilns or power plants use fossil fuels–usually coal or natural gas–to produce
cement or electricity. Harder-to-recycle plastics and tires, being petroleum-based, are used
instead of fossil fuels. WtE plants are becoming more popular since landfill space is an
increased concern (with excessive quantities of food and yard waste, in addition to plastics),
but also our world’s energy demands.

Today, WtE facilites in the U.S. process over 94,000 tonnes of waste per day and produce clean
energy to power over two million homes. This said, WtE should only occur after efforts to
reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost are exhausted first. Transitioning to a more circular
economy versus linear–which follows a ‘take-make-dispose’ model–will always take
precedence.

By Mary Closser