Are your recycling quotas for municipal solid waste still accepted by the EU? Ensure early certainty through EU-compliant monitoring >>>

Ensure early certainty through EU-compliant monitoring …

Prof. Nickolas Themelis reviewed the data presented in the Reshaping Plastics report of April 2022

Activated coke was prepared by mixing sewage sludge and waste poplar bark biomass from furniture manufacturing. The physical activation method of these feedstocks with steam for 1 h at 850 °C was implemented.

Analysis of the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) database of 2,549 MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) landfills showed that there were 1,164 operating landfills in which 348 million short tons (316 million metric tons) of waste were landfilled in 2017.

The Waste Wise Cities Tool (WaCT)supports cities and countries in establishing better waste and resource management strategies, creating business and livelihood opportunities, and transiting towards a circular economy. Globally basic data on municipal solid waste (MSW) generation and management is lacking, especially in low- and middle-income settings. This lack of data hinders the development of management strategies and investments in infrastructure, leading in many countries to insufficient or absent MSW management services.

There are 3159 operational dumpsites in India as per 2019 data of Indian central pollution control board, dumping approximated amount of 8.5 million tonnes annually (This is claimed value, whereas in reality amount is much higher and data for it is unavailable), it is estimated that more than 10,000 hectares of urban land are locked in dumpsites in India. Most of this dumpsite land is owned by the Municipalities and managed by them or the contracted private players. In addition, there are large groups of informal workers engaged at these sites for recovery of valuables and recyclables.

The Circular Plastic Alliance Declaration of the European Commission targets the us-age of 10 million tons of recycled plastic per year into new plastic products in Europe by 2025 (European Commission 9/20/2019). To assist this objective this work focuses on the improvement of mechanical sorting of polyethylene (PE).

In February 2019, the German Federal Cabinet adopted the 'National Strategy for Reducing Food Waste', setting a framework for the future direction of this initiative. Among other things, it stipulated that an inter-ministerial "Indicator 12.3 Working Group" should prepare the data bases and methods for nationwide balancing of food waste generation (baseline). Based on existing 2015 data, this status quo analysis will be used as a starting point to agree on milestones for the respective sectors.

To assess the sustainability along the whole value chain, life cycle-based methodologies have been developed over the last years. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) considers environmental impacts along supply chains, from extraction of raw materials to end-of-life of products (ASI 2006). The aim of this paper is to describe the use of LCA to assess the environmental impacts of the use of waste wood for energy production. Important methodological aspects on the use of LCA for the assessment of waste wood are presented using two different case studies from the H2020 projects STORY (Added value of STOrage in distribution sYstems) and TORERO (TORefying wood with Ethanol as a Renewable Output: large-scale demonstration).

The EU has established concrete recycling targets for packaging waste for 2025 and 2030. Furthermore, the methodology for calculating the corresponding recycling rates has been amended. The new and stricter calculation methodology will potentially lead to decreases of the current rates. This will be particularly the case for plastic packaging, where denkstatt calculated a gap far above 10 % compared to smaller decreases (> 2 %) to be expected for glass or steel packaging.

The FH Campus Wien Circular Packaging Design Guideline provide recommendations for circular design for the whole supply chain. Circular design is a necessary prerequisite to achieve the goals of the European Circular Economy Package which requires full recyclability of packaging by 2030. Circular packaging should re-duce resource consumption and environmental impacts of packaging. The assessment of packaging sustainability requires the calculation of direct and indirect environmental impacts and circularity at the same time. A method for holistic sustainability assessment of packaging has been proposed by FH Campus Wien and developed in an ECR-working group (Efficient Consumer Response) with the participation of a number of companies along the whole supply chain (brand owners, retailers, packaging manufacturers and packaging systems).

Relevant information about MW composition and proper forecasting of MW composition is crucial for relevant technical and economical modelling and business planning in the field of waste management. These include techno-economical models of MW treatment units, e.g. sorting line, transfer station, energy recovery, waste collection and transport or a regional waste collection and treatment system modelling (Kropáč et al. 2018) and complex business models concerning specific investments in waste management. In this context, there is a project under the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic.

A study of scientists from the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) presents a global material flow analysis of synthetic microfiber release from apparel washing covering the period from 1950 to 2016, i.e. from the beginning of mass production of synthetic fibers to the present.

UN works on global emerging priorities issues identified by governments on the environmentally sound management of hazardous chemicals

This study was conducted to set up a new reference line for municipal solid waste quantification and characterization in the least urbanized cities of a developing nation. A survey was run to collect baseline data from 60 new municipalities of Nepal.

Highlights •Development of the Solid Waste and Wastewater (SWW) management software is presented. •A graphical user interface applicable in the context of developed and developing economies •Tools for technical, economic, policy, and sensitivity analysis are provided. •Tool for optimizing the life-cycle of emissions or costs considering carbon credits •Assist decision makers to allocate expenditures for emissions mitigation measures

As an international network platform, ACR+ is collecting data on the different systems and solutions implemented across Europe to manage municipal waste in the current situation

The anaerobic digestion (AD) has become an alternative source and an attractive treatment method. Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) digester has been designed to treat the Recycled paper mill wastewater (RPMW) in Morocco.

Turkey is a developing country which has high urbanization and population growth which lead to a need for a good MSW management. Dumping has been reducing while sanitary landfilling has been increasing in the share of methods. Recovery has recently been applied and gradually increased in the share of MSW methods.

Future waste streams and corresponding recycling rates are projected by use of a fore-cast model for the context of Germany

The rapid growth of wind and solar power production installations worldwide has not been coupled with similar rates of integration in the electrical grid. This study proposes the conversion of agricultural residues into biocoal by means of frictional pyrolysis, which is a novel power-to-fuel technology that converts directly electricity into mechanical work and uses no additional heat. The excess renewable energy, that otherwise would be lost, will be utilized for converting agricultural residues into biocoal. This novel concept is defined as the concept of the renewable battery. A case study is presented for the State of California and three characteristic biomass types have been analyzed and converted into biocoal. The analysis showed that, between the years 2007–2016, the wind power installations have increased by 242.37% and the majority of solar PV were installed which account for 17,238 GWh. From the initial energy input of the biomass, the energy that was converted and stored in the form of biocoal ranged from 78.6% to 86.8%. The concept of renewable battery promotes carbon sequestration in agricultural practices and serves as a cleaner and renewable fuel that can be co-combusted with coal.

Managing the municipal solid waste (MSW) is a task that requires the combination of multiple strategies in order to follow the concept of circular economy. Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plants are producing electricity and heat but also have other byproducts that need to be disposed or can be reused. The standard method for assessing the WtE plants is the utilization of the R1 formula. The R1 formula has several limitations and is not able to integrate more parameters like the recovery of metals. The integration of the climate correction factor can improve the R1 up to 1.25 times but this factor is related to the Heating Degree Days, which is a rapidly declining value due to climate change. Contrary to the R1 Formula, the 3T Method is a novel method that can take into consideration all the range of products like syngas and biooil in a thermodynamically consistent way. These two methods were used to analyze three characteristic incineration plants and two gasification plants and this is the first time that this comparison is being presented. The results showed that the two methods have different ranges of returned values, with the R1 returning values (usually) between 0.5 and 1.1 and the 3T method returning values between 0.2 and 0.3. The 3T method on the one hand promotes high electrical efficiencies, i.e. 3T values approach the 0.3 mark for 30% electrical efficiency, and on the other hand promotes polygeneration where the recovery of char and metals can elevate the 3T value well above the 0.3 level for only 15% electrical efficiency and 70% metal recovery.

The purpose of this report is to provide a strong and comprehensive knowledge base on waste management in Kosovo, with focus on municipal waste. The key data provided per municipality and region, provide a clear understanding of the current situation, the trends and their implications, and future plans.