World turning to burning
Incineration of regular garbage has been routine for over a century in Europe, Japan and the United States.
In the 1950s, when energy costs skyrocketed, countries on both sides of the Atlantic went in different directions. Europe and Japan used energy recovery in their incinerators and incorporated them as part of their central heating systems for cities and located them near population centres. Today, 50 per cent of solid waste incinerated in Sweden produces eight per cent of the country's heating needs. This is projected to rise to ten per cent using 70 per cent of their solid waste.
The US, on the other hand, started closing down incinerators in the 1950s and 1960s mainly because of polluted flue gas emissions. The cost of installing pollution control devices was too high, and at any rate, it was not a priority because there was an abundance of land to use for landfilling. In addition, they were not aware, at that time, of the negative impact of landfills on the environment. Also, energy recovery was not a priority because the cost of energy was low in the US. However, when the global oil crisis of the 1970s struck, the US was back into the incineration market with emphasis on energy recovery.
Today, Europe is moving away from landfills towards recycling and incineration. Many members of the European Union are either prohibiting the dumping of incinerable materials in a landfill; imposing levies on top of tipping fees to encourage recycling, reuse and incineration; banning compost material from landfills by the year 2000; permitting disposal of materials with only three per cent or less carbon; or, passing laws to encourage the construction of incinerators.