Energy from Waste //
Time to stop the waste By Marc Stammbach IN a recent Inside Waste Issue, one of the Australian landfill stakeholders confirmed that around 70 per cent of landfill gas captured over the life of landfill. The IPCC states that methane has 28 times the greenhouse gas (GHG) potential of carbon dioxide, yet our political leaders aim for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Add to this the USA EPA, which summarises that landfill gas is produced at a stable rate for around 50 years with 50 per cent methane content. The are several consequences. This includes that any benefit of the 70 per cent capture of landfill gas is offset by the escaping methane or an equivalent of 420 per cent (30 per cent fugitive x 50 per cent methane content x 28 GHG factor). In other words we are still emitting the equivalent of six times more carbon dioxide (420 per cent/70 per cent) into the atmosphere. This starkly contrasts with the current landfill practice in Australia where the gas capture is celebrated as a success and financially rewarded with carbon credits. The active landfill period of 50 years means that any zero GHG by 2050 commitment is already doomed and will need to continue to at least 2080. This is because with the current policies, reactive landfills will still be part of waste management in 2030. Therefore, our landfills will continue to be GHG emitters past 2050 and we truly pass the problem down the generations while missing carbon neutrality at that time. Our Stammbach believes that private industry will avoid over investment in the EfW sector.
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INSIDEWASTE APRIL/MAY 2022
The supposition that EfW causes harmful emissions is wrong.
grandchildren are unlikely to thank us for this debt. We need to stop the waste and stop wasting time. We must act now. Stop pretending that landfilling is a sustainable solution. It is not. We need to applaud the jurisdictions that are already enforcing separate food and green waste collection. Then we need to rethink the need of source separation in all the other states,
not by 2030 as some jurisdictions are targeting, but for tomorrow. There is a need to stop pretending that conversations about which state or territory government has the most enlightened policy approach to a circular economy is the same as Australia nationally taking meaningful action to prevent valuable resources from being buried in landfill. Then there are the more obvious
solutions such as stop landfilling of untreated waste and getting the recyclables and organics out. Finally, there needs to be a push for anaerobic digestion of organics. In-vessel composting is great, but also needs energy instead of producing renewable energy in the form of bioelectricity or biomethane, which is something that is done by anaerobic digestion. Energy from Waste (EfW) is a viable solution because: • Private industry will take care to avoid over investment • Stop spreading the fallacy that there is EfW overcapacity in Europe. This was temporary over a few years and has been mostly discussed out of context. We should be grateful if there is some over-capacity because we always need services. • EfW does not hinder recycling and waste reduction initiatives. Some countries with some of the highest recycling rates in the world also have the highest EfW rates. • Stop claiming EfW causes harmful emissions. It is plainly wrong. Many countries in Europe have EfW facilities in the heart of their cities and in the immediate neighbourhood of residential areas. • If treasury and the EPA can’t see past the revenue from landfill levies then go-ahead and tax EfW but also
Daily news updates at www.insidewaste.com.au
