Fitting WTE in with Recycling

The State of Indiana is looking to update environmental legislation concerning the definition of recycling. The initial proposal may include waste-to-energy in the list of acceptable recycling technologies.

There was much opposition to this, people wanted to see waste-to-energy removed from the list of acceptable recycling options.

WTE vs. Recycling

While WTE is certain not the same as traditional material recycling methods, it is a form of recycling in that it recovers the energy from the waste which would otherwise be wasted when the waste is landfilled. It seems appealing to try to recycle everything, but sometimes that is not an environmentally-sensible solution. Many wastes would require more energy and resources to recycle than to remanufacture. These wastes are best dealt with using waste-to-energy technologies, including incineration. Is it more environmentally-sound to burn diesel fuel hauling the materials around for recycling, or incinerating them locally for energy production? It all depends on the materials, the processing they require, and the hauling distance.

To maximize recycling, one thing that can be done is that manufacturers can package their goods in recyclable containers, such as corrugated boxes and PETE instead of PVC plastic. PVC is nothing but trouble anyways, producing chloride that corrodes the furnaces and boilers of incinerators and forms extra dioxins under poor combustion conditions.

Efficient Incineration

If new incinerators are built, they should not be of the "electricity-only" variety because these units waste about 80% of the total energy input. It makes sense to site incinerators in urban areas where the waste is generated and a district heat demand is located. A mid-sized incinerator will simply throw away over 100 megawatts of heating power - heat that could be used. A waste-to-energy cogeneration plant with flue gas condensers can recover up to 98% of the energy from the waste it burns. Up to about 30% of that comes out as electricity, the rest as heat. This heat is usable as heat or it can be converted into chilled water using an absorbtion chiller, reducing strain on the grid in summer due to air conditioning load.

Waste Heirarchy

Rather that placing WTE on the same level as material recycling, it should be placed below recycling in a waste management heirarchy. Waste that is suitable for recycling is recycled, what cannot be recycled is processed using WTE.