Recent WtERT News
Minnesota Court: State Can Prioritize WTE Over Landfill Around Twin Cities
Minnesota Court: State Can Prioritize WTE Over Landfill Around Twin Cities A first in the U.S.A.: The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled April 8 that the state's Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) can in fact enforce a disposal hierarchy that prioritizes waste to energy.
New York Times Front Page about WTE
New York Times Front Page about WTE The front page of New York Times, dated March 27, 2019, carries a photograph of Copenhagen "ski slope WTE" with a story how Copenhagen has cut down its carbon emissions. Link to the story is here - https://www.nytimes.com/…/cl…/copenhagen-climate-change.html
Oregon’s Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Report 2018
Oregon's Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Report 2018 Oregon's Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) multi-year report, published in December 2018, questions some of the assumptions made regading environmental impacts of "recyclable" and "compostable" materials. Link to Oregon's Dept. of DEQ 2018 report: https://www.sciencedirect.com/…/artic…/pii/S0956053X15300775
The first WTE in Australia going up at Kwinana (Perth).
The first WTE in Australia going up at Kwinana (Perth) At the invitation of visionary Rob Moltoni of Moltoni Energy, Prof. Themelis spent a good part of April 2010 on a series of lectures in Perth (and Kwinana!) on the potential benefits of WTE for Australia. The gestation period was nearly eight years but hopefully the second WTE may not take [...]
Prof. Marco Castaldi, Chair WtERT-US, is organizing the WtERT sessions of this meeting
Prof. Marco Castaldi, Chair WtERT-US, is organizing the WtERT sessions of this meeting. Link to NAWTEC 2019 meeting of SWANA in Reston Virginia (April 2019) https://swana.org/Events/NAWTEC.aspx) Please take a minute to view the program at: solid-waste.org. I hope that you will be able to attend this important meeting. If you need any further information or have specific questions, please contact me at icsw@solid-waste.org. [...]
WTE Options of Waste Management
WTE Options of Waste Management A very good and factual comparison of various "WTE Options of Waste Management" (combustion, anaerobic digestion, landfill gas) has been published by the German organization GIZ who has extensive presence and experience in the developing world. Read Full Article
European Commission’s “Circular Economy Action plan”
European Commission's "Circular Economy Action plan" Prof Themelis, of Columbia University has a commeny about the European Commission's "Circular Economy Action plan": On waste management, there is not one word about energy recovery by combustion of post-recycling wastes? By now, according to Eurostat data, 28% of EU MSW is used as fuel in waste-to-energy (WTE) plants (450+ of them in EU). [...]
Comment of Prof. Themelis on the broad use of the word “Incineration” and “Incinerators”
Comment of Prof. Themelis on the broad use of the word "Incineration" and "Incinerators" In many parts of the world landfills are set on fire to create landfill space. Even in the U.S., each year there are about three thousand unintended landfill fires (see Dwyer and Themelis, Dioxins study on Google). These events can be called "incineration" but do not apply [...]
First Waste to Energy in UAE
First Waste to Energy in UAE Prof. Nickolas Themelis response to Waste Dive editorial: I am surprised that Waste Dive, who attended the 2018 WtERT meeting at City College of New York, last October, seems to endorse the misinformation published by "Rina Li" last December in Waste Dive. As is the usual case, Li does not mention LANDFILLING, not even once, [...]
Burning issue: Are waste-to-energy plants a good idea? | Environment | The Guardian
Burning issue: Are waste-to-energy plants a good idea? | Environment | The Guardian To the Editor, Guardian: Re the Australia-related article "Are waste to energy (WTE) plants a good idea?", twenty years of in-depth studies at Columbia University have shown that...not only it is a good idea but it is the only practical idea for avoiding wasting land, metal, and energy resources, [...]