Belgium Academies (ARB)
2010
Geen abstract, enkel deze draak van een samenvatting:
The paper deals with the biodegradable part of waste generated by citizens in urban environments. This is essentially household waste and gardening waste. Assimilated to this category of waste is almost all that comes from restaurants, canteens and food shops inasmuch as its composition is similar to that of house hold waste.
In the European Union, people generate currently 523 kg per inhabitant and per year of municipal solid waste (MSW). Hazards and nuisances associated with dumping are deemed unacceptable. Very specific and mandatory regulations make landfilling very difficult to manage. The trend is, accordingly, to reduce as far as possible the residual amount of waste to dump. Today, in most developed countries, local programs aim to separate household hazardous wastes (chemical cleaners, pesticides, paints, batteries, oils, etc…) and to recover certain materials (metals, paper, cardboard, plastics, glass, textiles, etc…) at the source. There remains however currently 204 kg/inhabitant. year of biodegradable waste in MSW, and it is responsible for most of the waste’s related disturbances in urban environments. For the European Union with its 500 million inhabitants, this makes 102 million Mg (1Mg = 1 metric tonne) of biodegradable MSW, i.e. approximately 20% of all biodegradable waste generated by economic activities each year in the EU. This justifies fully the present report.
