Recent WtERT News
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, [...]
Summary Report of 2018 Activities of WtERT Partner Organizations
Summary Report of 2018 Activities of WtERT Partner Organizations GLOBAL WTERT COUNCIL Research, education, and information for sustainable waste management (January 20, 2019) This Report is a summary of the research and other activities of the partner WtERT organizations around the world. The Report shows the breadth and depth of the research, education, and information dissemination activities of the national organizations [...]
New book by World Bank from EEC alumna
New book by World Bank from EEC alumna New book by World Bank on What A Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050 is co-authored by EEC alumna Perinaz Bhada and includes section about WTE for Tajikistan from thesis of EEC alumna Shahnoza Boboeva.
Should energy be recovered from plastics?
An excellent article in Chemical and Engineering News (Sept. 2018, by Alexander Tullo, see link at very bottom) is titled "Should energy be recovered from plastics?" Columbia University has been studying the subject of used plastics for nearly ten years. One can find several theses and other documents at our web page www.wtert.org. After many efforts by chemical industry and others [...]
UNECE Committee for the development of PPP Guidelines
UNECE Committee for the development of PPP Guidelines Dr. Bourtsalas was appointed as an expert at the UNECE committee for the development of PPP Guidelines on WTE applications at the 'One Belt, One Road' regions. The committee consists, among others, of financial- ADB, IFC and legislative insteuments- UN, Chinese government. The final report will be presented in May 2020. [...]
New Book: Waste-to-Energy Technologies and Global Applications
Dr. Efstratios Kalogirou, member of the Global WtERT Council and co-founder of WtERT-Greece has published a very interesting book on modern WTE technology and some of its applications around the world.