ISWA Blog: Best Available Waste Treatment - Hamburg Connects Waste to Energy & Recycling
ISWA Board member and the CEO of the Hamburg municipal waste company, Professor Rudiger Siechau, discusses Hamburg’s success at combining waste to energy with recycling… Since the early 1970s, the importance of incineration plants for waste treatment in Germany has been increasing because incineration plants: Guarantee long-term and safe disposal for a huge amount of household waste Contribute to climate and resource protection by producing energy from waste, gypsum, metals, cinder, bottom ash etc. and by reducing methane emissions that are emitted on landfills if waste is not pre-treated Destroy, convert, separate, concentrate and/or immobilise hazardous components in waste (dioxin-sink) Reduce waste volume (saves space on landfills). According to European and German waste legislation it is no longer allowed to landfill household waste without thermal or mechanical-biological pre-treatment since 2005. This ban on landfilling pushed the incineration plant market in the late 1990s and early 2000s so that numerous incineration plants were built and came into operation. By contrast, the incineration capacities grew rapidly while the amount of residual waste for incineration stagnates or even declines in the recent years. This effect is due to the rising awareness of resource protection in policy, industry and population resulting in rising efforts of separate collection and recycling of the various waste fractions. The European waste framework directive (2008) sets new targets with a focus on climate and resource protection. Centrepiece of the European waste legislation is a five step waste hierarchy (1. prevention; 2. preparing for re-use; 3. recycling; 4. other recovery; 5. disposal) with a clear priority on waste prevention and substantial use of waste. In some municipalities this development leads to surplus incineration capacities which demand a readjustment of waste management. In Hamburg, this challenge was identified and solved forward-looking on time. Hamburg is one of the EU's 10 largest cities – and large amounts of household waste have to be handled every day. 1.8 million inhabitants produce more than 750,000 tons of household waste each year. The waste is collected, treated and disposed by the public company “Stadtreinigung Hamburg” (SRH). Waste management in Hamburg has two important and coexisting areas of strength - “separate collection / recycling” and “incineration”. Incineration capacities are an essential base in a big city like Hamburg for ensuring long-term safe disposal. So even though, consistent promotion of separate collection of recyclable materials from households within the last 5 years resulted in an increase of separate collected fractions for recycling and in a decrease of residual waste for thermal treatment, SRH still needs incineration capacities to ensure: Safe and affordable disposal of household waste Independence from third parties and their price policy (stable fees for citizens), Climate and resource protection by producing of energy from waste, recovery of metals from cinder, short transportation ways and compliance with legal requirements (emission control etc.). To be well prepared for the future, SRH developed a waste management strategy that took into account current conditions of waste treatment plants in Hamburg, expected future development of household waste in Hamburg and duties of a public company regarding citizens, policy, environment etc. As a result, SRH bought one already existing modern plant (100 %) and increased the share in a second existing modern plant (45 %) – both with energy production and emission control at a high level. In return, SRH renounced to rebuild its own 40-year-old plant, but will close down the plant in summer 2015. In addition, SRH will not renew a contract with another old plant (expired in December 2016). This gradually and advisedly reduction of incineration capacities takes out the pressure to fill the incineration capacities – perhaps even with waste fractions, which could be better recycled. Instead of that, SRH is able to extend and improve separate collection and treatment of recyclable waste materials continuously. In summary, Hamburg benefits from this modern two-way-strategy of SRH, and SRH is setting a good example for other big cities. The best available way of waste treatment in Hamburg: Connection of incineration and recycling technology! Professor Rudiger Siechau, is an ISWA Board member and the CEO of the Hamburg municipal waste company. Read More ISWA Blog: Event to Tackle Waste Management Issues in South & East Europe Alexei Atudorei discusses a number of upcoming events for the year, starting in March, that are being organised by the ISWA and its members. SWANA: Will Waste Management & Environmental Legislation be Rolled Back by Republicans? ISWA President, David Newman asked John Skinner, the CEO of Swana, about the politics of the U.S. and how it would affect environmental policies. ISWA Blog: Russia & India - Waste Management Sector’s Biggest Opportunity ISWA President David Newman questions whether, from an environmental perspective, it would be better to invest in basic sanitary waste collection and landfills in the huge countries of the developing world, than in ever higher and more expensive to achieve recycling rates in Europe. ISWA Blog: Spanish Waste Management and the ‘Molecule of the Future’ Spain is a highly developed country but still lags behind the EU targets – especially it lags behind in source separated collection and composting.
