Materials and energy from refuse: Trends in the united states

Abstract

Materials recovery from refuse, not including refuse-derived fuels, has not grown as quickly as energy recovery. There is various anectdotal evidence that the number of source separation programs is steadily increasing, but they are not producing significant quantities of materials compared to what is available. A few mechanical sorting plants are separating and selling magnetic metals, aluminum and glass. Most of the plastic recovered is in the form of discarded beverage bottles. A major reason for the low growth is that secondary materials are marginal sources of supply for manufacture and secondary materials from refuse are marginal supplies of last resort.

Energy recovery from refuse is on the upswing, after about a five year hiatus (from 1979 to 1984) with a growing market share for mass burning compared to refuse-derived fuel in various forms. The trend line for increased capacity predicted in 1977 continues; it is based on the assumption that a municipality will install an energy from waste plant when other municipalities have done so (first order rate equation). The predicted exponential growth in processing capacity continues with some indication of a slowing of the rate.