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Landfill vs Incineration in Amsterdam - Coggle Diagram
Landfill vs Incineration in Amsterdam
Background
'Lansink's Ladder' - incorporated into Dutch legislation in 1994
avoid creating waste in the first place
recover the raw materials from it
generate energy by incinerating residual waste
only then dump what is left but in an environmentally acceptable way
Netherlands has a growing population and a diminishing amount of spare space
late 1900s: rising prosperity lead to greater production and consumption of goods, so an increase in waste
Landfill
government forced to reduce landfill due to increased material consumption. lack of space & environmental deterioration of the land
increasing objections to waste disposal sites from public due to smells, soil pollution, groundwater contamination
1995: landfill ban covering 35 waste categories
1995: landfill tax on every tonne of material landfilled - gave companies financial incentive to use recycling/ incineration instead, tax increased every year until 2012
repealed in 2012 as it was unnecessary due to low level of landfilling
by 2006 targets of the Landfill Directive for 2016 was already reached
Waste to energy incineration: the Afval Energie Bedrijf (AEB) incineration plant
As a W2E strategy, Amsterdam created AEB incineration plant capable of producing 1 million MWh of electricity annually
AEB plant used to create heating for several communities, produces 300,000 gigajoules heat annually
1.4 million tonnes of waste brought to plant annually = 600 trucks & 1 freight train per day of refuse from Amsterdam metropolitan area
64% waste that ends up at the plant is recycled
awareness of environmental effects of gasses: AEB installed a complex process of scrubbing the flue gases, attempts to close the loop for other by-products so material can be used in other industrial processes - trace elements for manufacturing/ fly ash for construction
Waternet water treatment plant next to W2E plant & work together - W2E plant supplies energy & heat for water treatment processes; water treatment plant injects sludge/ biogas into W2E plant as an extra fuel source
plant performs several functions so compares positively to other disposal methods
avoids 438 kilotons of CO2 per year
Comparison
If equivalent amount of waste was put into landfill 1036 kilotons of CO2 would be emitted per year, due to methane gases
If gases captured/ burned off total emissions reduced to 404 kilotons - still higher than the 438 kilotons 'saved' by AEB plant
Conclusion
W2E strategy considered economically and environmentally better than landfill
However, incineration is still a controversial waster disposal strategy
2014: government set target to reduce waste-to-incineration by 50%, and focus on recycling/ reduction