Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Bulgaria
Poland
Czech republic
Greece
Hungary
Slovenia
Portugal
Ireland
UK
USA
Finland
Italy
France
Denmark
Japan
Netherlands
Germany
0
25
50
% Municipal solid waste
75
100
Landfill
Incinerated
Composted
Recycled
Figure 1.3
The fate of waste in different countries.
Rather, we must move towards a circular economy whereby we continue to make
use of the resources in articles when they are no longer required in their current
form. This is
waste valorisation
.
Waste produced in the food supply chain is a good example of a pre-consumer
type of waste generated on a large scale all over the world. Sixty percent of this
is organic matter, which can represent up to 50% of all the waste produced in a
country. Food waste is ranked third of 15 identified resource productivity oppor-
tunities in the McKinsey report '
Resource Revolution
:
Meeting the World
'
s
Energy
,
Material
,
Food and Water Needs
' [9]. But there are few examples that
take us away from the totally wasteful and polluting landfilling or first-genera-
tion and limited-value recycling practices such as composting and animal feed
production. We need to design and apply advanced methods to process food
waste residues in order to produce high-value-added products including chemi-
cals and materials which can be used in existing and future markets. Society also
needs a paradigm shift on our attitude towards waste, and this needs to be steered
by governments (and trans-government agencies such as the EU) worldwide.
One government-driven incentive is the increasingly expensive waste disposal
costs. The EU Landfill Directive, for example, has caused landfill gate fees to
increase from £40-74 to £68-111 between 2009 and 2011 [10]. Improved
resource utilisation can positively influence the profits of industry as well as
enable new companies to start up, produce new growth and expand innovation
opportunities by moving towards the ultimate sustainability goal of a zero-waste
circular economy [11, 12].
