Task 36: Material and Energy valorisation of waste in a Circular Economy

Task 36: Material and Energy valorisation of waste in a Circular Economy

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Did you know that approx. 1.5 billion tonnes of food are wasted annually, equivalent to about one third of the food produced for consumption? Or that the household plastic packaging can be sorted out in up to 12 different fractions using a technology based on sensors?

REPORT: ADVANCED SORTING TECHNOLOGIES IN THE WASTE SECTOR

This IEA Bioenergy Task 36 report includes two case studies highlighting the use of new technologies in the waste management industry for increasing material recovery of waste fractions that otherwise might go to energy recovery or be landfilled. The material recovered might has sufficient quality for being recycled. The cases included are:

  • SITE ZERO (Svensk Plaståtervinning) in Motola, Sweden: The smart sorting technology in Site Zero, a state-of-the-art plastic sorting plant, aims to realize a circular economy for plastic packaging. It has capacity to receive all the plastic packaging generated by the Swedish households; and sorts mixed plastic packaging from households into 12 different fractions. The novelty of this plant relies on the combination of technologies.
  • AMP ONE Cleveland (AMP) in Cleveland, Ohio (US): This facility is a showcase for the use of AI-powered sortation to increase recycling rates and economically recover recyclables in US. It sorts all traditional recyclable products (i.e. HDPE, PP), but also sorts advanced and custom streams such as bales by colour and opacity, pyrolysis feedstock, and methanolysis feedstock.

Read more:  access to the report here

Figure 1. Sorting line at Site Zero (Svensk Plaståtervinning, Sweden)

REPORT: FOOD LOSS AND WASTE QUANTIFICATION, IMPACTS AND PO TENTIAL FOR SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT 

This report provides an overview of food waste and its potential role as a feedstock for material and energy valorisation. The purpose of this report is to inform countries on the issues around food waste, including quantification and arisings across the supply chain, towards implementing solutions in the waste/resource management and waste-to-energy sector that would facilitate their transition towards circularity. The topics covered in this report were selected due to their relevance in the field of waste management and waste-to-energy, particularly in the context of sustainability.

Main highlights of the report:

  • Approximately 1.05 billion tonnes of food are wasted annually, equivalent to about one third of all food produced for consumption.
  • Food waste poses societal, economic, and environmental impacts. Food production requires extensive resources such as land, fertiliser, fuels, water etc. When food is wasted along the supply chain, all upstream activities and resources related to their production are wasted. Moreover, if food waste is not managed and disposed of correctly, it can cause environmental issues such as an increase in methane released from landfills, unpleasant odours, and increased pollution of waterbodies.
  • Quantification of Food Loss and Waste (FLW) is essential to allow development of reduction or valorisation strategies and is facilitated by specifying what to measure and how to measure it. The aim is to encourage consistency and transparency of the reported data and promote informed decisions about food loss and work on strategies to minimise FLW.
  • The environmental impacts of different waste management options for municipal food waste, including avoidance, composting, anaerobic digestion (AD) and incineration have been considered using Life cycle assessment (LCA). An avoidance strategy for wasted food showed the best environmental performance, while AD resulted in the lowest environmental impact for unavoidable food residues and minimal food waste.
  • Food waste contains valuable materials, such as carbohydrates, lipids and amino acids, and it is a promising feedstock for producing value-added chemicals and fuels. It is important to characterise food waste to identify optimal valorisation routes, extracting higher value from food waste while reducing impacts.

Read more:  access to the report here.