Ingenieur Vol. 64 Oct-Dec 2015 Ingenieur Vol 64 Oct-Dec 2015 | Page 30

‟ INGENIEUR ... the feasibility of energy-from-waste technologies may be limited by various factors in many low and middle-income countries, so it is likely that a well-engineered landfill will often represent the ‘best practicable environmental option’ for waste that cannot be recycled economically solid waste in the European Union (EU) was still going to landfill. Subsequent steps have focused on diversion from landfill, primarily through increased recycling but also through an increase in combustion with energy-from-waste (incineration). These changes were largely driven by policy and by explicit targets in the EU, while the United States, for example, has relied mainly on market forces (with higher recycling rates driven by the high cost of state-of-the-art landfill and energy-from-waste facilities as alternative ‘sinks’). As noted above, the feasibility of energyfrom-waste technologies may be limited by various factors in many low and middle-income countries, so it is likely that a well-engineered landfill will often represent the ‘best practicable environmental option’ for waste that cannot be recycled economically, at least until industry succeeds in designing out such waste. ACTION IMPERATIVES All waste generators: Where practicable, keep materials separate and/ or ensure segregation at source so as to reduce contamination and facilitate recycling. Developing countries: Build on existing ‘bottom-up’, small-scale entrepreneurial recycling by integrating the 6 28 VOL – DECEMBER 2015 VOL64 55OCTOBER JUNE 2013 informal recycling within the mainstream waste management sector. High-income countries: Maximize sustainable recycling, including composting and anaerobic digestion (AD) from clean, source-separated feedstock – consider high efficiency energy-from-waste (EfW) for any residual waste. Include energy from waste (anaerobic digestion, thermal processing and landfill gas) in national policies to support the development of renewable energy. Lower-income countries: Maximize recycling, including organics recycling; in parallel, develop facilities for the proper management of any residual waste. In the short term, the priority is to replace uncontrolled disposal with controlled facilities, and in the longer term to strengthen standards to meet full ‘environmentally sound management’ criteria. In either case, a well-controlled or well-engineered landfill may represent the ‘best practicable environmental option’. REFERENCE UNEP: Global Waste Management Outlook Ministry of Housing of Local Government: The Study on National Waste Minimization in Malaysia 2006.