As affirmed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the warming of the climate system due to past and ongoing emissions is now unequivocal and many of the observed changes are unprecedented. Energy-from-Waste (EfW) can help reduce GHG emissions by keeping the waste, that remains after recycling efforts have been exhausted, out of landfills, generating electricity and recovering metals for recycling.

EfW Around the World

EfW is a widely accepted part of Europe’s comprehensive waste management approach, which includes reducing, reusing, recycling/composting, recovering energy and then only landfilling what’s left over. If all countries managed their waste as responsibly as European countries like Denmark and Germany, the GHG savings would be equivalent to:

  • Closing 1,000 large coal‐fired power plants;
  • Building two million 1MW wind machines; or
  • Doubling the global nuclear power plant capacity.

For more information, please see Covanta’s white paper: “Waste and Climate: Reducing Your Footprint”