Selective collection and waste-to-energy strategies: which interaction?

This paper updates and analyses the interaction between the selective collection of municipal solid waste and waste-to-energy strategies in a case-study where high efficiencies of source separation have been reached thanks to more than a decade of efforts. For a better understanding of the local waste management history, in the selected case-study (province of Trento, Italy) the most important years were analyzed and characterized. In the selected case-study, particular attention has been given to the organization of selective collection and environmental protection, the location being also a tourist area. The variability of selective collection (that increased its efficiency year by year) affects the characteristics of the residual municipal solid waste and subsequently its “lower heating value” and the waste-to-energy strategies. The residual municipal solid waste generated today is similar to a solid recovered fuel. Its exploitation in existing industrial plants for energy recovery represents one of the present-future strategies to be developed.