In this opinion piece for eureporter, ESWET President Siegfried Scholz addesses Europe’s landfills crisis and argues that penalising the solution to it – Waste-to-Energy – is the wrong approach.

“Methane is a climate menace. It traps 80 times more heat than CO₂ over 20 years per tonne emitted and causes roughly one third of current global heating. The gas escapes as organic materials in landfills,”, Dr. Scholz writes.

“Waste-to-Energy (WtE) technology offers a proven solution. By thermally treating residual waste, it eliminates methane emissions entirely while generating district heating and power for local communities”, he adds.

However, the EU is considering expanding the Emissions Trading System (ETS) to cover Waste-to-Energy plants, forcing them to buy permits for their CO₂ emissions. This would raise operating costs, increase waste disposal fees, and ultimately shift the financial burden onto taxpayers, pushing municipalities to look for other waste management options.

“The result is ironic: as Europe aggressively pushes to reduce landfilling, it would simultaneously penalise the very infrastructure – WtE – needed to achieve that goal”, Dr. Scholz says.

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