Waste to Energy: Should we burn or bury our rubbish?

How To Save The World Podcast

This episode is sponsored by Ecotricity - New Zealand's only carboNZero certified electricity retailer. Join Ecotricity now!

This episode is about how to ditch landfills. Landfills don't work. We all hate them. We don't want them in our backyards. They are getting further away from our cities – Dome Valley (between Warkworth and Wellsford). They produce tonnes of methane and an eternal leachate problem which you don't want in waterways. So burning all this waste to generate energy is a great idea, right?!

Waveney's been researching expert opinion and data from both sides and presents a far more complex picture of waste to energy than you may know. This includes four different kinds of W2E: Incineration, Gasification, Pyrolysis and Anaerobic digestion (aka bio-digestion).

W2E is an attractive alternative to landfill: It creates energy; It could reduce the need for landfills; It reduces the volume of rubbish; It creates new jobs when plants are opened and it doesn't mean that all the rubbish has to be gobbled, we can still recycle or repurpose useful items.

HOWEVER, that leads us to the five big issues with W2E. It isn't a very efficient way to make energy. The toxic ash and filters need to go somewhere (often landfills). It doesn't vanish waste, it creates a very dangerous concentrated end product. It's the lowest waste jobs creator (1 job for 10,000 tonnes vs landfill's 6 jobs, recycling's 36 jobs and waste recovery's 200-300 jobs). It's very expensive, which creates a dependency of waste generation long-term, making it incompatible with zero waste goals.

Sign the petition against incineration for Aotearoa.

Have a listen and please share with your friends who are passionate or just curious about waste to energy solutions. Thank you to the following people who helped with this episode; Michael from Sierra Energy, Hannah and Liam from the Rubbish Trip, Val from the Zero Waste Network, Trish A for your winning question on our Facebook page.

LINKS, RESOURCES AND REFERENCES

https://www.mfe.govt.nz/climate-change/state-of-our-atmosphere-and-climate/new-zealands-greenhouse-gas-inventory

https://orders.wastemanagement.co.nz/media/files/DFNews%20Draft%20Aug%2017.pdf

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/109411303/bold-new-waste-energy-plant-concept-proposed-for-huntly

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste-to-energy

https://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/biogas/wastetoenergy-plant-to-be-built-in-new-20190715

https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-tech/energy-production/sweden-is-great-at-turning-trash-to-energy.htm

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