Should Energy from Waste be Considered Renewable?

There is much debate as to whether Energy from Waste (EFW) should be considered a renewable energy source.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), renewable energy relies on fuel sources that restore themselves over short periods of time and do not diminish[1]. Traditionally, these energy sources include solar, wind and biomass.

Solar and wind are considered renewable energy sources because the life cycle emissions produced during the manufacturing and usage of these sources are negligible compared to the emissions produced by fossil fuels. And biomass, which is biological material derived from cultivated living organisms, is also considered renewable because the amount of carbon released by burning the organism is equal to the amount of carbon absorbed by the organism during the cultivation stage. Thus, the total life cycle emissions from using biomass are considered negligible.

The EPA considers EFW renewable energy because the majority of municipal solid waste is biogenic – meaning it comes from natural sources – just like biomass[2].

Unfortunately, however, 33 per cent of the emissions produced from burning municipal solid waste do not come from biogenic sources – they come from burning plastics and other fossil fuel derived products[3] – making EFW a less environmentally friendly energy source than solar, wind and biomass.

Table 1: Emissions in Tonnes per MWh for various energy sources³.

Nevertheless, energy produced from burning municipal solid waste is still cleaner than energy produced from fossil fuels and areas where fossil fuels are the predominant energy source, such as Alberta and Saskatchewan (see Table 2), should not be dissuaded from introducing EFW plants in order to reduce some of their fossil fuel dependency.

Table 2: Average overall emissions per MWh for various jurisdictions[4].

EFW should therefore not be considered a renewable source of energy by the EPA because of the significant amount of carbon released during the operation of these plants, which could accumulate to a significant amount of carbon released throughout the lifespan of the plant.

Filed under: Students on Sustainability