CEWEP members are committed to increasing the energy efficiency of their plants so that they can generate as much sustainable energy from the waste as possible.  CEWEP has produced a number of reports on the Energy Efficiency of Waste-to-Energy Plants. (For further information also see the European Commission's R1 Guidelines)

On the basis that about 73 million tonnes of household and similar waste that remains after waste prevention, reuse and recycling, was treated in Waste-to-Energy Plants across Europe in 2009, 29 billion kWh of electricity and 73 billion kWh of heat can be generated.

Then between 7-40 million tonnes of fossil fuels (gas, oil, hard coal and lignite) can be substituted annually, emitting 20-40 million tonnes of CO2.

In order to move away from Europe's high dependence on fossil fuels we should explore the cost effective and available alternative energy option: Waste-to-Energy.

To Examples of Good Practice