Discover waste management solutions from collection, disposal, recycling to energy conversion in Europe:
Made of Air – uvoji – Nantek – IEM ConveyingSystems – Worn Again Technologies – Plastogaz – Recycling Technologies – The Waste Transformers – STC Power – Bin-e – Ecofilae – Empower.eco – Lab – Steinmüller Engineering – ZenRobotics – Martin – Sadako Technologies – Plastic Odyssey – Urban Resilience Platform
Wastes collected from households and establishments
With an increase in population comes an increase in waste products that must be managed. Traditional disposal methods fail miserably to adequately and properly handle the increasing load.
Worldwide, over 2 billion tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) is generated each year.
Source: Worldbank
- 44% Food, green
- 17% Paper, cardboard
- 12% Plastic
- 5% Glass
- 4% Metal
Some wastes are simply dumped into our oceans polluting the planet and harming marine, animal, and human life.
The methane emitted by rotting foods in a landfill is 28-36 times more potent than the carbon emitted from passenger vehicles.
Source: Rubicon
Waste management is therefore a crucial issue for the sustainable development of our society.
How is waste managed and disposed globally today?
- 33% is openly dumped
- 25% is disposed in unspecified landfills
- 5% is recycled
- 11% is treated through incineration
- 7% is disposed in sanitary landfills (with landfill gas collection)
- 5% is composted
- <1% Other
Source: What a Waste 2.0, World Bank Report
EU circular economy plans
The European Commission’s new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) aims to halve residual waste by 2030.
The Waste Framework Directive, responsible for the “waste hierarchy”, requires that, as of 2020, European Union (EU) households must recycle or prepare for re-use 50% by weight of waste materials, such as paper, metal, plastic and glass.
By 2025, the recycling and preparing for re-use of municipal waste shall be increased to a minimum of 55%, 60% and 65% by weight by 2025, 2030, and 2035 respectively.
Source: European Commission
Hard Facts and Statistics About Waste
Source: World Bank (2018). What a Waste 2.0 infographic.
♦ Worldwide, over 2 billion tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) is generated each year.
Source: Worldbank
♦ Global waste will increase 70% to 3.4 billion tonnes by 2050, unless urgent action is taken.
Source: Worldbank
♦ The majority of waste created in middle- or high-income countries is made up of inorganic material such as paper or plastic. Developing countries are responsible for producing over half of the earth’s total solid waste.
Source: Actenviro
♦ Over 90% of waste is mismanaged in low-income countries.
Source : Worldbank
♦ In some low-income countries, including sub-Saharan Africa, the waste volume is likely to triple by 2050.
Source: IFC
♦ 13.5% of the world’s municipal solid waste is recycled. Source: Worldbank
♦ By 2050, the world’s oceans could contain more plastic than fish measured by weight.
Source: theworldcounts
♦ A garbage truck dumps a load of plastic into the ocean every minute, and much of the fish that humans consume have ingested plastic microfibers.
Source: linchpinseo
Source: @storyofstuff Artist: @gatishs
♦ The methane emitted by rotting foods in a landfill is 28-36 times more potent than the carbon emitted from passenger vehicles.
Source: Rubicon
♦ Medical waste has increased by 40% since the start of Covid-19.
Source: IFC
♦ We use 5 trillion plastic bags… per year! That’s 160,000 a second!
Source: theworldcounts
♦ It takes up to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to break down. On average, a plastic shopping bag is used for just 12 minutes.
Source: theworldcounts
♦ As of February 2021, more than 50 million tons of hazardous waste had been thrown away globally.
Source: theworldcounts
Waste Management Solutions
Waste management is a crucial topic for the sustainable development of our society.
Governments and organizations around the world therefore continue to make headway in efforts to solve the different countries’ mounting trash problems. This can be accomplished through the implementation of cutting-edge technology and through an unprecedented level of cooperation and coordination between recyclers, designers, packagers, manufacturers, businesses, municipalities, governments, and others.
Waste-to-Energy Technologies
One of the waste management solutions is leveraging Waste-to-Energy technologies which treat non-recyclable waste. Waste which is not fit for re-use or recycling and would otherwise be landfilled. For example, contaminated biomass such as wood treated with wood preservatives. In 2018, the European citizens generated 220 million tons of municipal waste, of which 116 million tons were non-recyclable.
Waste-to-Energy plants transform this waste into energy used for electricity generation, for heating and cooling and for various industrial applications – among others to produce hydrogen. In 2018, Waste-to-Energy plants supplied around 18 million of European citizens with electricity and 15 million of citizens with heat.
Source: The Waste-to-Energy Plant of the Future by ESWET
Check out Waste Management solutions in Europe
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