 Energy recovery or material recovery for MSW treatments?Chung-Chiang Chen and Yi-Tui Chen Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2013, vol. 74, issue C, 37-44 Abstract: Whether to recycle the recyclable fraction in the MSW (municipal solid waste) or to incinerate it for energy recovery is a debating issue. In this paper we present a simple criterion to judge what type of waste components should be recycled or incinerated with energy recovery. According to the R1 formula presented by the waste framework directive (Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament), this paper calculates the energy performances of MSW waste-to-energy plants currently operated in Taiwan firstly. By using the assumed value of energy recovery efficiency and carbon emission costs, we compare the treatment methods between recycling (material recovery) and energy recovery by the cost and benefit analysis, and examine the suitability of recycling for waste fractions of paper, food waste, PET, PVC, and plastic bags/films under a variety of scenarios. The results show that food waste is more appropriate to be treated by recycling while plastic bags/films are suggested to be incinerated with energy recovery. Keywords: Incineration; Energy recovery; Material recovery; Waste-to-energy; Municipal solid waste (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:recore:v:74:y:2013:i:c:p:37-44 DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2013.02.003 Access Statistics for this article Resources, Conservation & Recycling is currently edited by Ming Xu More articles in Resources, Conservation & Recycling from Elsevier |
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