Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
resources in other plants that the waste incineration plant could replace should also be taken
into consideration (European Commission, 2005). The Landfill Directive specifies
operational and technical requirements for landfills. It sets the demands that the pricing for
receiving waste should include after-care for at least 30 years. It also dictates lower quantities
of biodegradable waste in landfill and the collection of methane emissions. Apart from this,
there is a directive on producer responsibility for packaging waste (European Union, 2004b),
stipulating levels of material and/or energy recovery for different packaging materials.
The EU's waste policy is founded on the waste hierarchy, described in the Sixth
Environmental Action Programme from the European Commission (2001) and states that first
comes waste prevention, then recovery (reuse, material and energy recovery where material
recovery, including biological treatment
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is preferred to energy recovery) and finally disposal,
where landfill and waste incineration without energy recovery are included. Swedish waste
policy is based upon this hierarchy. This does not go undisputed, however; in particular the
question of whether energy recovery or material recovery, including biological treatment, is
to be preferred, raises issues.
Directives that impact the energy sector include the directive on the common electricity
markets (European Union, 2003a), which states that Europe should have free trade in electricity in
member states. This will mean higher electricity prices than historically in Sweden, since Sweden
will be harmonized with continental Europe which currently has a higher electricity price (e.g.
Trygg and Karlsson, 2005). This will further be described in the section on Impact on Waste
Incineration of Trade in Electricity. There is a directive promoting CHP (European Union, 2004a),
stating that CHP is an effective way to use resources and one measure to meet the demands in the
Kyoto protocol. This has probably had an impact on the design of the proposed tax on incinerated
waste, which will be explained in the section on Introduction of a tax on incinerated waste in
Sweden. Recently, the European Union managed to agree on minimum energy tax levels
(European Union, 2003b). There is a directive promoting electricity produced from renewable
energy sources (European Union, 2001). Also this is seen as a measure to meet the demands in the
Kyoto protocol and strengthening the domestic supply of energy. This has in Sweden led to the
implementation of a system of green electricity certificates, which will be explained in the section
on Green electricity certificates and waste incineration. Another directive regulates the emission
allowance trading (European Union, 2003c). Waste incineration plants are not included in the
trading sector, but are affected by the fact that the costs for fossil fuels increase as do electricity
prices due to marginal pricing, where the marginal power producer is coal condensing power in
the European system, further explained by Trygg and Karlsson (2005).
European Differences in Waste Management and Use of District Heating
This section presents some figures with regard to the amount of district heating in
different European countries and waste management methods. Figures for electricity and heat
output from waste incineration in different European countries are given. The aim is to
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Biological treatment includes digestion and composting. When digested, biodegradable waste is degraded without
access to oxygen, resulting in biogas which can be used as fuel for vehicles or for electricity and heat
production, and a residual product which can be used as fertilizer. When composted, biodegradable waste is
degraded with access to oxygen, and the residual product can be used as a soil amender.
