Pagliaro, M. Waste‐to‐wealth: The economic reasons for replacing waste‐toenergy with the circular economy of municipal solid waste. Visions for Sustainability2020, New Visions (2020), doi:10.13135/2384-8677/4421.
Pagliaro, M. Waste‐to‐wealth: The economic reasons for replacing waste‐toenergy with the circular economy of municipal solid waste. Visions for Sustainability 2020, New Visions (2020), doi:10.13135/2384-8677/4421.
Pagliaro, M. Waste‐to‐wealth: The economic reasons for replacing waste‐toenergy with the circular economy of municipal solid waste. Visions for Sustainability2020, New Visions (2020), doi:10.13135/2384-8677/4421.
Pagliaro, M. Waste‐to‐wealth: The economic reasons for replacing waste‐toenergy with the circular economy of municipal solid waste. Visions for Sustainability 2020, New Visions (2020), doi:10.13135/2384-8677/4421.
Abstract
Sharing the same raw material, recycling and composting are in direct conflict with incineration of municipal solid waste in combined heath and power plants. Indeed, waste-to-energy plants in regions with high recycling rates import urban waste from other countries to use otherwise unused capacity, and raise revenues. Using the case of Italy’s second largest and economically most developed region, I discuss the economic viability of municipal solid waste incineration to produce electricity and heath in the context of the increasing role of electricity production from renewable energy sources as well as of the emerging mass-scale uptake of bioplastics. Four lessons and three guidelines aimed to local authorities and policy makers emerge from the present study.
Keywords
recycling; composting; waste-to-energy; incineration; municipal solid waste; circular economy; green jobs
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Waste Management and Disposal
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
