Africa - South Africa, Cape Town City

Source: https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/waste-to-energy-plant-opens-in-
cape-town-20170125

A R400m waste-to-energy conversion plant was officially opened in Athlone, Cape Town, on
January 1, 2017 with high hopes of reducing the city's landfill sites and creating jobs.

It symbolised the city's move from being a distributor of electricity to generating electricity in
its goal of having 20% renewable energy as part of its energy mix.

The sprawling plan was thought to be the first of its kind in Africa, and would pave the way
for more plants to turn rubbish into gas.

The project is a collaboration between Waste Mart and Clean Energy Africa, and will be run
by New Horizons Energy.

New Horizons Energy CEO Egmont Otterman said the city generated around 8000 tons of
waste a day. If another eight plants of the kind unveiled on January 1, 2017 were built, there
would be no more need for landfill sites.
 The plant would use 500 tons of organic household, municipal, and industrial waste per day,
in an anaerobic digestive process, to produce methane, food-grade carbon dioxide, and
organic fertilizer.

The plant could supply around 4% to 5% of the city's liquid petroleum gas requirement.

Clean Energy Africa CEO Marcel Steinberg said there was a noticeable link between
economic growth and increased waste. Plants such as theirs provided a zero waste landfill
facility because everything produced by the mechanical processes was used.

What got everybody excited was the prospect of fewer landfill sites festering with rubbish as
waste would be diverted to the plant and its successors.

Zille said the plant would allow Africa to leap-frog centuries of technology to be at the
forefront of energy creation. It would contribute to Cape Town's energy stability - an
attraction for foreign investors.

Western Cape government-funded entity Green Cape had helped with technical support and
would work with other municipalities in the province to roll out similar initiatives.
Antarctica

Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/trash-threatens-fragile-
antarctic-environment-16230923/

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/antarctic-rubbish-tip-will-cost-millions-to-clean-up-
20140216-32tr1.html
 Most people think of Antarctica as a harsh but pristine ice landscape where
mountain tips poke through thick ice sheets and penguins lounge on ice shelves.
But Antarctica, particularly the ice-free areas that serve as research hubs, have a
darker, dirtier side.

Domestic waste such as food scraps, and everything an Antarctic town might
produce and discard over the course of 12 years: batteries, pipes, cables,
chemicals, dead dogs, eggs, asbestos, transformers, timber and building
materials.

Who exactly is generating the newly dumped trash? Not so much the tourists, the
report says. Tourists spend less time in sensitive areas and are monitored by
guides who ensure that they pack out their trash and stay recommended
distances from wildlife. However, researchers and staff can access station
vehicles and boats and can off-road into remote areas unsupervised. Particularly
problematic here is that, based on empirical evidence, a large proportion of
station staff regard the Antarctic environment as being insensitive and not really
worth protecting, the report states (p.103). Moreover, not all station members,
including scientists, receive sufficient training with respect to behavioural
guidelines and environmental issues.
Australia - Australia, Sydney City

Source: http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/vision/towards-2030/sustainability/waste-
management

By 2030 the local areas households and businesses will be sending over 200,000 tonnes of
waste to landfill a year. Yet its unlikely there will be landfills close to Sydney capable of

taking waste by then. The waste will have to be sent more than 250km away.
When waste or garbage is buried and decomposes over time it emits greenhouse gases,

principally methane.
Methane is 25 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and levels

are growing with increased methane emissions from landfill and other forms of waste.
Landfill methane emissions currently contribute about 3% of Sydneys total greenhouse

gas emissions.
The City plans to develop advanced waste treatment plants, which will see the virtual

elimination of non-recyclable waste going to landfill.

Renewable gas can be derived from waste, including agricultural, horticultural, livestock
manure, sewage, commercial, industrial and municipal waste and landfill. Technologies to
do this are used globally, and the best options for the City of Sydney are set out in the

advanced waste treatment master plan.

This will allow the City of Sydney to utilise the existing gas grid infrastructure to transport

and deliver renewable gas to the local area.

The City has yet to identify a site for an AWT plant in close proximity to the city with

optimal transport facilities and connections to the electricity and gas grids.

Creating energy from waste

The advanced waste treatment master plan will deliver energy from waste for Sydney by:

recovering both material and energy resources from waste with virtually no waste going to
landfill converting non-recyclable waste to renewable and non-fossil fuel gases
The dots represent landfills in Australia:

The future of landfills and resource recovery

So what lies ahead? Landfills will remain an integral part of the Australian waste cycle into the
foreseeable future. Well managed, best practice landfills provide safe disposal of residual waste
and the potential for resource recovery.

We have observed an increase in investment in resource recovery infrastructure, which is

possibly driven by rises in landfill levies. But more is needed: the 2016 Infrastructure Australia
report did not mention waste or recycling.

In order to provide key integrated infrastructure, governments need to recognise that waste
(and its proper management) delivers essential services like electricity or water.

Technology used in Australia and around the world

There are 10 existing advanced waste treatment plants in Australia, processing up to 1 million
tonnes of household and business waste each year.
Another 5 facilities across NSW, Queensland and Victoria currently recover energy from
industry waste. Part of the energy supply for NSW and Queensland comes from power stations
at sugar mills running on waste. There are a further 10 facilities for recovering energy from
waste in planning and development across Australia, using waste from agriculture, households
and businesses.
Hundreds of advanced waste treatment facilities are in operation around the world.
Europe - England, London City

Source: https://www.letsrecycle.com/news/latest-news/city-of-london-achieves-zero-
waste-to-landfill/

November 11, 2011 City of London achieves zero waste to landfill

Containers of waste from the City of London awaiting transportation by barge to the Cory EfW plant at Belvedere

All residual waste collected from the City of Londons 9,000 residents and street
cleaning operations is being processed in Cory Environmentals 350 million energy-from-
waste (EfW) incinerator at Belvedere in Bexley, South East London. The Belvedere EfW
plant, known as the Riverside Resource Recovery facility, has the capacity to treat
585,000 tonnes of waste a year.

The waste used to be sent to landfill sites at Mucking (operated by Cory) and Pitsea
(operated by Veolia) in Essex. But, as part of its waste strategy published in 2008
the City of London Corporation made a commitment to reduce the amount of waste
being sent to landfill by encouraging residents to reduce waste, increase recycling
and composting and deliver the remaining waste to an energy-from-waste plant.
 Corys Riverside Resource Recovery facility in Belvedere

Cory has a 30-year contract running until 2025 to treat approximately 5000 tonnes
residential and street cleansing waste for the City of London Corporation per year.
This is worth 1.5 million a year.

The Corporation of London said the plant was one of the most efficient facilities in
Europe and would generate a net of about 66MW of electricity, feeding into the
National Grid with enough electricity to serve around 100,000 homes.
North America - USA, New York City

Sources: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/27/new-york-rubbish-all-that-trash-
city-waste-in-numbers

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/fascism-france-s-right-vs-hard-right-restoring-
the-world-s-oldest-library-massive-landfill-becomes-park-1.3874265/150-million-tons-of-

reeking-garbage-now-holds-up-a-park-1.3874269
https://ny.curbed.com/2016/9/13/12891320/freshkills-park-nyc-staten-island-engineering-

design

The "land-fill method" of disposing of unburnable waste was developed in 1939 in the
United Kingdom, but its first use in the United States was at the Fresh Kills, in what
came to be known as a "landfill", where it was introduced by William Carey, New York
City's Sanitation Commissioner.
 The Fresh Kills Landfill was a landfill covering 2,200 acres in the New York City borough
of Staten Island in the United States. The name comes from the landfill's location along
the banks of the Fresh Kills estuary in western Staten Island.

The landfill was opened in 1948 as a temporary landfill but became New York City's
principal landfill in the second half of the 20th century. It was once the largest landfill, as
well as human-made structure, in the world. In October 2008, reclamation of the site
began on a multi-phase, 30-year site development for reuse as Freshkills Park.

Before After

The park wont be fully complete until 2035, but some sections are already
accessible on a limited basis to tour and school groups. Since 2010, it has hosted
nature hikes, bird-watching groups, kite-flying excursions and kayaking tours.

Freshkills Park 2010

How landfills are structured
South America - Brazil, Rio De Janeiro City

Sources: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/05/world/americas/brazil-landfill-
closure/index.html

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/rio-20-un-sustainable-development-jardim-
gramacho-landfill/

http://www.theplaidzebra.com/jardim-gramacho-garbage-picker-world-largest-landfill/

Brazil's biggest open-air landfill has been closed on the outskirts of Rio de
Janeiro after 34 years in operation.

The Jardim Gramacho dump, a mountain of rubbish near the city's main airport,
will be replaced by a modern recycling plant.

The move, while welcomed by environmentalists, is expected to leave more than

1,700 people out of work.

The landfill, known as Jardim Gramacho or Gramacho Gardens, is piled almost

300 feet high across 14 million square feet -- the equivalent of 244 American
 football fields. It is the largest landfill in Brazil and all of South America. Built in
the late 1970s, it received close to 8,000 tons of trash daily, 70% of all the trash
in the Rio metro area.
Rio de Janeiro's Jardim Gramacho dump is being transformed into a vast facility

that will harness the greenhouse gases generated by the rotting rubbish and turn
them into fuel capable of heating homes and powering cars.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL Rios Jardim Gramacho landfill, Latin

Americas largest covering a land mass of 1.3 million square meters,
officially closes today, June 3rd. Previously scheduled for a May 6th
closure, the 35 year-old landfill located in Duque de Caixas has long been
controversial and considered responsible for delivering tons of
contaminants into Guanabara Bay.
The landfill is to be transformed into a methane recapture plant
(operated by Novo Gramacho Energia Ambiental S.A.), creating
fuel from the gases emitted from the massive rot.