Waste-to-Energy Projects in Emerging Markets: Lessons Learned from Realized International Projects

It is a foregone conclusion that sooner or later, emerging markets may overtake developed countries. As industrial production increases, so do social tensions and pollution. Growth in population and larger industry production lead to increased consumption rates, and as a result to a higher waste generation. The crucial question is therefore: What's to be done with all this waste? The usual approach would be to dispose the majority of the waste in landfill sites which are – preferably – located far away from densely populated areas. However, as both – cities and landfill sites – expand, landfill sites are moving closer to cities, increasing social tensions and leading to no go areas where only the poorest of the poor may live. Moreover, as waste disposal capacities in landfill sites are rather limited, this is a rather ineffective way of dealing with all the produced waste. However, driven by the enormous mountains of waste, many emerging countries are changing or already have changed their national waste strategy due to a shift in public opinion. As a recognised general guideline for a forward-looking waste strategy, the avoidance of waste is now being set as top priority above the recycling of waste, followed by incineration of waste to generate energy and using landfills only as a last resort. Often these strategies are at odds with the emerging industry with its increasing appetite for cheap energy, its rather ineffective waste disposal systems and common regulatory issues. Public Investments in state-of-the-art waste disposal facilities combined with latest waste-to-energy solutions can provide a valuable contribution to solve these problems, but require significant amounts of money in order to be successful. This article sets out some of the major risks and issues, particularly applicable to waste-to-energy projects in emerging markets comprising the construction and operation of relevant facilities, and shall introduce solutions which, in practice, proved to be successful.