Food waste for energy. Energy from garbage - unlimited fuel
Receiving energy from living beings evokes primitive associations for many - with a horse carrying a load, or a hamster turning a small dynamo through its wheel. Someone else will remember the school experience with electrodes stuck into an orange, forming a kind of “living battery”... However, in this regard, the work of our much smaller “brothers” - bacteria is much more effective!
The “garbage problem” on a global scale is much more significant than it might seem to the average person, despite the fact that it is not as obvious as other environmental horrors that they like to talk about in various kinds of “scandals-sensations-investigations”. 26 million tons per year - this is only Moscow and only household waste! And even if we diligently sort everything and then recycle it, the amount of organic waste will not decrease, since it makes up about 70% of all the rubbish produced by humanity. And the more developed the country’s economy, the more organic household waste there is. No amount of processing can defeat this terrifying mass. But in addition to household waste, there are huge volumes of industrial waste - wastewater, food production waste. They also contain a noticeable amount of organic matter.
A promising direction in the fight against organic waste littering the planet is microbiology. What people don’t finish eating, microbes finish eating. The principle itself has been known for a long time. However, today the problem is its effective use, which is what scientists continue to work on. It’s easy to “feed” a half-eaten hamburger to microbes in a jar! But this is not enough. We need a technology that will allow bacteria to quickly and productively process thousands and millions of tons of waste without extra costs, without expensive structures and catalysts, whose cost negates the final efficiency of this process. Unfortunately, most technologies that use bacteria to process waste today are either unprofitable, unproductive, or difficult to scale.
For example, one of the well-known and well-developed technologies for processing waste using bacteria is the method of producing biogas, familiar to many foreign farmers. Livestock manure is rotted using microbes, which release methane, which is collected in a huge bubble bag. The system operates and produces gas suitable for heating the same farm through electricity generated by a gas turbine generator or directly by combustion. But such a complex cannot be scaled purely technologically. Suitable for a farm or village, but not for a big city. Plus, unlike manure, urban waste contains many toxic components. These toxic substances end up in the gas phase in the same way as beneficial methane, and the final “mix” turns out to be highly polluted.
However, science does not stand still - one of the most promising technologies that are now of interest to scientists around the world (including, probably, the notorious British ones) is the use of so-called “electricity-producing bacteria”, which are one of the best waste eaters, simultaneously producing electricity from this unpleasant process from a human point of view. On the surface of the cell membrane of such a bacterium there is a protein called cytochrome, on which an electrical charge is formed. During the process of metabolism, the bacterium “dumps” an electron onto the surface of its cell and generates the next one - and so on over and over again. Microorganisms with such properties (for example, geobacter) have been known for a long time, but their electrical abilities have not found practical application.
What do microbiologists do? Andrey Shestakov, a researcher at the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University and head of the laboratory of microbial biotechnology, told Computerra about this:
“We take an electrode-anode, cover its surface with cells of electrochemical microorganisms, place it instead of hydrogen in a nutrient medium that we need to process (garbage, “garbage solution” - for simplicity we will do without details), and during the metabolism of these cells we from each of we will receive electrons and protons from them.
Then everything is the same as in a conventional fuel cell - the cell gives up an electron and a proton, the protons are sent through the proton exchange membrane to the cathode chamber to the second electrode of this battery, adding oxygen from the air “at the exhaust” we get water, and we remove electricity to an external circuit. It's called a Microbial Fuel Cell.
It’s a good idea to remember how a classic hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell works and functions. Two electrodes, an anode and a cathode (for example, carbon and coated with a catalyst - platinum), are located in a certain container, divided into two parts by a proton exchange membrane. We supply hydrogen to the anode from an external source, which dissociates on platinum and releases electrons and protons. The membrane does not allow electrons to pass through, but is capable of allowing protons to pass through, which move to another electrode - the cathode. We also supply oxygen (or simply air) to the cathode from an external source, and it produces reaction waste - pure water. Electricity is removed from the cathode and anode and used for its intended purpose. With various variations, this design is used in electric vehicles, and even in portable gadgets for charging smartphones away from an outlet (such, for example, are produced by the Swedish company Powertrekk).
In a small container in a nutrient medium there is an anode with microbes. It is separated from the cathode by a proton exchange membrane made of Nafion - under this brand name this material is produced by BASF, which was not so long ago known to everyone for its audio cassettes. Here it is - electricity actually created by living microbes! In the laboratory prototype, a single LED lights up from it through a pulse converter, because the LED requires 2-3 volts to ignite - less than what the MFC produces. Although it takes quite a long time to get to the microbial biotechnology laboratory of Moscow State University in the deep basement through dusty and wild corridors, it is not at all a repository of antediluvian Soviet scientific equipment, as is the case with the vast majority of domestic science today, but is well equipped with modern imported equipment.Like any fuel or galvanic cell, the MFC produces a small voltage - about one volt. The current directly depends on its dimensions - the larger, the higher. Therefore, on an industrial scale, fairly large-sized installations are assumed, connected in series into batteries.
According to Shestakov, developments in this area began about half a century ago:
“Microbial generators” began to be seriously studied at NASA in the sixties, not so much as a technology for generating energy, but as an effective principle for processing waste in the confined space of a spaceship (even then, as far as possible, they tried to protect space from debris, shamelessly continuing to pollute the Earth ...!) But the technology was born and after that it actually remained in a comatose state for many years, few people needed it in reality. However, 4-5 years ago it received a second wind - since there was a significant need for it in light of the millions of tons of garbage littering our planet, as well as in the light of the development of various related technologies, presumably making it possible to make microbial fuel cells a non-laboratory exotic “desktop format” but real industrial systems that allow processing significant volumes of organic waste.
Today, Russian developments in the field of MFC are the fruit of joint efforts of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University and the M-Power World company, a Skolkovo resident, which received a grant for such research and outsourced microbiological developments to specialized specialists, that is, to us. Our system is already functioning and produces real current - the task of current research is to select the most effective combination of bacteria and conditions under which MTC could be successfully scaled up in industrial conditions and begin to be used in the waste processing and recycling industry.”
There is no talk yet about MFC stations being on a par with already proven traditional energy sources. Now the first priority for scientists is to effectively recycle biowaste, and not to obtain energy. It just “just so happened” that it is the electricity-producing bacteria that are the most “voracious”, and therefore the most effective. And the electricity they produce during operation is actually a by-product. It needs to be taken from the bacteria and “burned”, doing some useful work so that the biological process occurs as intensively as possible. According to calculations, it turns out that it will be enough for waste recycling plants based on microbial fuel cells to operate without external energy sources.
However, in Shestakov’s laboratory they are pursuing not only the “garbage” direction, but also another - purely energy one. A biogenerator of a slightly different type is called a “bioreactor fuel cell” - it is built on different principles than the MFC, but the general ideology of receiving current from living organisms, of course, remains. And now it is already aimed primarily at energy production as such.
What’s interesting is that while many scientists around the world are now studying microbial fuel cells as a means of destroying waste, fuel cells are being studied only in Russia. So don’t be surprised if someday the wires from your home socket lead not to the usual turbines of a hydroelectric power station, but to a waste bioreactor.
The need to solve the problem of recycling solid household waste and treating liquid wastewater from cities and villages has been long overdue, however, there have not yet been technologies that solve it in a comprehensive manner. Everything that was offered to humanity was expensive or ineffective.
The proposed technology, in our opinion, is devoid of these critical shortcomings and has one main and fundamental advantage.
Emax technology (there is a patent application) represents a complex of interconnected technological sections that ensure the processing of solid and liquid household, agricultural and industrial waste using various methods:
1. Solid waste processing site
Garbage collection system (possibly with preliminary coarse sorting)
2. The liquid waste treatment area consists of
Pools for the accumulation of wastewater and filtration of furnace gases;
Systems of plastic box-baths with systems for supporting intensive growth of special plants;
3. Area for collecting and processing green mass:
Storage containers;
Biomass grinding apparatus;
3. Energy section:
Continuous feed biogas reactor;
Gas tanks;
Each of the modules that make up the system is quite widely known in production, but they are not used in such a combination.
In addition, there are fundamentally new developments, the implementation of which makes it possible to combine these four sections into a single cycle, the input of which is garbage and sewage, and the output:
Valuable green mass that can be used for the production of feed, paper, furniture, as well as for filling biogas reactors.
Electricity and heat
Oxygen.
Economic profitability is ensured in almost every area of the technology - fees for solid waste disposal, for receiving sewage, the sale of surplus biogas, electricity and heat, and the sale of surplus biomass.
Application options for Emax technology.
Operating greenhouse.
The standard Emax biomodule is installed, the size is calculated depending on the need for electricity and heat. Agreements are concluded with companies that collect and remove waste and companies that clean septic tanks. Vermicompost and liquid biofertilizers are used for the needs of the greenhouse. Construction costs can be relatively low, especially if existing buildings are partially used. Profit comes from waste disposal and savings on the facility’s energy supply.
Operating livestock complex
The Emax biomodule is standard, the size is calculated based on the volume of waste. In this case, it is necessary to dilute the overly concentrated nutrient solution (manure). Therefore, purified water is returned to the accumulation pools and used in the process of caring for animals. The biogas yield compared to a standard biogas reactor using farm waste directly is more than 10 times. In this case, only solid waste can be imported from outside, but their volume increases due to the increased concentration of the solution. Electricity production will be excessive; a sales market is needed. This can be solved through partial use of biomass for livestock feed. In our opinion, this is the most economically advantageous option for using the technology.
City wastewater treatment plants
It makes sense to make an Emax biomodule with a vertical building arrangement. The height and overall size are calculated based on the volume of liquid waste. An additional CO2 collection and storage system is required, since gas is not supplied to the box baths at night. Solid waste is imported by city enterprises; it is necessary to build a large furnace with a turbine. In fact, the complex will be a city heat and power plant with a system for purifying emissions and solid waste as a coolant. The system produces large amounts of heat and electricity. A large sales market is needed. The issue of discharging clean water and vermicompost arises. The volume of furnace sludge becomes significant. The costs of design, construction, and operation are significant. But the profit is also very high.
City block or small town
In the case of using Emax as a source of energy supply for a separately constructed settlement or residential area, the location of the Emax biomodule can be either vertical or horizontal, depending on many factors - the cost of land, the availability of funds, and the aesthetic preferences of the developer. It is necessary to install an additional water supply line in newly constructed residential buildings, into which apartment bathrooms, radiators, lawn watering points, etc. will be connected. There may be a shortage of system capacity during the winter. This can be solved by accumulating biogas in the summer or importing additional volumes of fuel in the winter. A company serving a populated area can make a significant profit due to the sale of electricity and heat not at wholesale, but at retail prices, or reduce tariffs for utility services and make housing more affordable for citizens.
Private housing construction
For a house with an area of 120-150 m2, at least four people need sewage and solid waste. The system provides sufficient production of either electricity and partly heat, or heat and partly electricity. Here it is also advisable to send purified water to the home’s bathrooms and heating system. If there are domestic farm animals on the estate, complete energy self-sufficiency is possible.
Detached urban commercial property
It is advisable to build an Emax biomodule only if there are a large number of people visiting the building. In this case, it is possible to partially provide the building with one or another type of energy from its own waste. However, it is possible to somewhat reduce utility costs by stopping garbage collection and using recycled water in toilets.
Providing feed to livestock complexes in conditions of geoclimatic disaster
Biomodule Emax are producers of highly nutritious feeds that do not depend on solar activity, the cultivation of which does not require additional costs for heating and lighting. Economic indicators are not a significant factor.
Motor transport (as madness)
Ground biomass is loaded into a composite tank and the engine runs on biogas, which is generated directly while the car is moving.
Possible productions related to the technology
Manufacturing of Dianova digesters;
Manufacturing of box baths and mobile lines for molding box baths;
Production of Emax lines for individual housing construction;
Manufacturing of boilers for solid waste;
Manufacturing of gas electric generators;
Approximate calculation of the production of some products per wastewater of a settlement of 1000 people per day.
If successful, there is a possibility of creating ecosystems that ensure the functioning of any settlements, from minimal ones - farms, settlements, to the largest urban agglomerates such as Moscow and New York, which will “feed” on everything that these cities produce, and in return produce clean energy water and oxygen.
A city provided with such closed-cycle ecosystems integrated into its structure is itself a living ecosystem, providing citizens with energy, clean water, clean air and removing all types of pollution. Similar ecosystems are beginning to be developed in the world, but the productivity of existing options is still negligible, since it does not have the unique growth rate of biomass, and therefore waste processing, and therefore the generation of profit per unit of cost, as the proposed complex.
What will our country, city, planet be like in a few decades? Will this all become a reclaimed piece of land or will the ever-increasing landfill reach our homes and porches? In developed countries, recycling of household waste has been used for more than 40 years, but for Russia it is still a new thing.
We know practically nothing about the most modern waste processing technologies. Andrey Lopatukhin, a consultant at ALECON, a company engaged in the implementation of municipal solid waste (MSW) hydroseparation systems in the CIS, answers the questions.
What is solid waste hydroseparation technology?
The hydroseparation process is carried out as follows: unsorted waste is fed onto a moving conveyor belt. The belt moves under a very strong magnet, to which metal waste sticks, after which the waste ends up in a drum with holes of different diameters, and the waste is sorted by size. Small and large fractions are directed along different belts, which are lowered into a tank filled with water. Then the lighter waste rises to the surface, and with the help of a fan, the bags are sorted into one container and the bottles into another. Then this part of the garbage is prepared for the secondary stage of processing, and from the garbage that has sunk to the bottom - organic residues - biogas is produced in a bioreactor.
The energy obtained by burning biogas satisfies the needs of the plant, 60-70% of the energy is sold. 80-85% of the total waste volume is recycled. The plant has a modular design from 300 tons of waste per day; productivity can be increased to 2000 tons per day and higher. From waste we get income! Biogas and green electricity are produced from organic waste!
What is the annual energy potential of solid waste in Russia, where is it concentrated? Can recycling of solid waste solve energy problems?
Not taking into account the many natural landfills, only in the Central Federal District the potential of accumulated solid waste annually is equal to 250,000 tons. The largest landfills for today's technological projects for methane extraction are of top priority. They are concentrated in the Central Federal District - 4 landfills, in Tula - 1, in the Moscow region - 3, in the Southern Federal District - 1, in the Northwestern - 2, in the Ural Federal District - 2, in the Volga Federal District - 6 landfills, in the Far Eastern – 1 and in the Siberian Federal District – 3 landfills.
Can recycling of solid waste help solve energy problems?
Undoubtedly! As calculations have shown, street landfills produce methane in the amount of 858 million tons per year, biogas – 1715 million tons.
What is the amount of organic part in the waste? What happens to the inorganic part in the proposed hydroseparation technology?
Waste contains both inorganic and organic substances, which have varying degrees of decomposition. The content of organic matter in waste is 35-60% by weight of the total amount of waste. Through recycling, inorganic resources receive a second life. For example, non-ferrous and ferrous metals are melted down, glass is used in construction, and many useful items for household use are made from plastic.
What are the advantages of the method of hydroseparation of solid waste over other methods of plasma pyrolysis and closure of solid waste landfills with energy production based on landfill gas? What is its market niche?
The main advantage of the technology for hydroseparation of solid waste in comparison with other methods of plasma pyrolysis is greater efficiency and rapid payback of the enterprise, a closed cycle of technology and environmental friendliness. To set up a plant, you need an area of 2 hectares and a relatively small investment that will pay off in five years.
From biogas get electrical energy, part of which goes for own needs, and part for sale. Organic mass, converted into compost after processing in a bioreactor, is an excellent environmentally friendly fertilizer for growing herbs and vegetables in greenhouses.
Since plasma pyrolysis requires a lot of electricity, its costs are equal to the method of burning solid waste. All plants operating using pyrolysis technology do not provide the necessary solution to solid waste problems for the following reasons:
A large percentage of secondary waste polluting the environment;
Poor performance. There are very few plants worldwide with a capacity of more than 300 tons per day;
Low energy output of waste;
High cost of plant construction and ongoing processing costs.
To ensure the environmental cleanliness of the technological cycle, it is necessary to install expensive gas filters and smoke traps.
The technology for the production of landfill gas with the closure of solid waste landfills is characterized by many indicators of environmental pollution. The toxic liquid “filtrate”, accumulating in the depths, ends up in groundwater and reservoirs, poisoning them. In addition, at such landfills the process of waste decomposition slows down due to the lack of air, and no one knows how many more decades it will take for it all to completely decompose.
In addition, this technology requires significant land area and operating costs.
The technology of hydroseparation of solid waste occupies a worthy niche in the market for waste disposal offers as the most economically sound and environmentally safe technology.
What product do solid waste processing companies offer to the market: heat, electricity, gas? Who is the buyer of these resources?
Along with those products that are recycled (glass, metal, plastic, cardboard and paper), enterprises that process solid waste fully satisfy their own electricity needs and supply their products to the heat, electricity and gas markets. Biowaste is used to produce high-quality compost for agricultural needs.
A possible option is a general complex for the processing of solid waste with the cultivation of herbs, vegetables or flowers in greenhouses.
Does Russia have experience in organizing solid waste processing enterprises that provide resources for energy production? What problems did they face?
The potential of solid waste in Russia is about 60 million tons per year. In the Moscow region alone, about 6 million tons of solid waste are disposed of in landfills annually. After the organic part of the waste decomposes, biogas is produced at landfills. The key components of biogas are greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (30-45%) and methane (40-70%).
According to experts, at a landfill with an area of about 12 hectares, with a disposal volume of 2 million m 3 of solid waste, it is possible to obtain approximately 150-250 million m 3 of biogas per year and obtain approximately 150-300 thousand MW of electrical energy. This landfill can be used for several years without changing equipment or investing additional financial resources. Unfortunately, we are not aware of any completed projects using this technology in the Russian Federation.
One of the reasons why Russia still does not have innovative technologies for processing solid waste is the non-use of the Kyoto Protocol. In Israel, for example, for the collection of greenhouse gases at a landfill with a volume of 2 million m3, 5-10 million euros per year can be raised through the Kyoto mechanism. We hardly use existing landfills and landfills, but sort the garbage after it is collected. We process organic waste to produce biogas and compost immediately after garbage cans. This way we can prevent unnecessary burial.
Not only rats and cats, homeless people and tireless seekers of various valuables have long been rummaging through the garbage. Scientists and engineers are increasingly involved in this. But what are they trying to find in it? Of course energy. After all, trash can be useful.
Energy potential
Garbage as a renewable and virtually inexhaustible source of energy? Why not. Remember good old Dr. Emmett Brown from the Back to the Future film trilogy? Finding himself in this very future, the pundit modified his time machine, equipping it with a “home nuclear reactor” that produces electricity from food waste. Meanwhile, the year 2015 indicated in the film is no longer a distant fantastic future, but the real past, albeit recent. And if it has not yet come to the point of using nuclear reactors in everyday life (although developments are being carried out tirelessly), then the production of energy from waste has become quite commonplace.
Natural resources for energy production on Earth are becoming less and less, and all kinds of garbage are becoming more and more, and sometimes there is simply nowhere to put it. Yes, rich developed countries (especially those where landfilling of waste is legally prohibited) can afford to fuse waste in third world countries for a fee, but this is a ticking time bomb, since these states do not have the proper processing capabilities and technologies, and a special desire to do this too. And there is one planet for everyone.
What follows follows from the well-known fundamental law of nature: energy does not disappear anywhere, but is preserved in one form or another - the only question is how to effectively and harmlessly extract and transform it. And if so, then it is no good to squander or stupidly destroy valuable raw materials, which for the most part is garbage - it is better to profitably use its fairly high energy potential. A good example is the recycling of used car tires. There are a lot of them and they are very bulky, but at the same time they represent valuable recyclable materials. If you simply burn a ton of tires, about 300 kg of soot and almost half a ton of toxic gases will be released into the atmosphere. If we subject them to processing through low-temperature pyrolysis (up to 500 ° C), then the output will be synthetic oil, carbon black and flammable gas.
Many people, organizations and enterprises in many countries have devoted themselves to solving the problems of “energy development” of waste deposits, and all this has already given rise to a whole complex of research, technologies, systems, programs and activities under the general name Waste-to-Energy (WEA) or Energy -from-Waste - “Garbage into energy”, or “Energy from waste”.
Kilotons to kilowatts!
For almost a century and a half, an alternative to waste disposal at landfills, such as incineration, has existed and continues to develop widely: the first waste incineration plant was built in Nottingham, British, back in 1874. But why just burn (poisoning the atmosphere) if you can use the energy of the heat generated for good? As a textbook example of such “waste” energy, the environmentally friendly Spittelau incineration plant in the 9th district of Vienna (one of the central ones, where Mozart and Schubert, Beethoven and Freud lived at different times) is most often cited.
A masterpiece of industrial design, this plant is one of the attractions of the Austrian capital, along with its opera house, cathedral or imperial palaces, and at the same time, by processing 250 thousand tons of city waste annually, it produces thermal energy that has been used to heat more than 100 thousand houses for a good quarter of a century in several areas of Vienna at once. Today, the Austrian experience is becoming more widespread, and municipal solid waste (MSW) is playing an increasingly important role in the fuel and heat supply of developed countries. Thus, in Holland, which processes 100% of its waste, there are 11 “garbage” thermal power plants.
The next logical step is to convert, if necessary, thermal energy into more “appliable” and “all-season” electrical energy. And now 130 factories in France, which is recognized as the European leader in the production of energy from municipal waste, annually generate almost 10 million Gcal of thermal energy and more than 3 billion kWh of electricity. In total, there are about 500 enterprises producing energy from waste in Europe, and the same number in China alone, and in Japan, for which both waste and fuel problems are especially relevant for obvious reasons, there are almost 2 thousand of them. At the same time, calculations by experts show that direct combustion technologies make it possible to obtain the same amount of thermal energy from 1 ton of solid waste as by burning 250 kg of fuel oil or 200 liters of diesel fuel.
And in Russia we process
Not so long ago, the Moscow government - Russia's largest "supplier" of solid waste - abandoned (largely under the influence of protests from local residents and environmentalists) the idea of building waste incineration plants, preferring instead enterprises using hydroseparation technology, which is much cheaper and allows for separation waste into fractions (paper, metal, glass, plastic, etc.), and then process them into recyclable materials, fertilizers and energy. By the way, the composition of solid waste in Russia is as follows: paper and cardboard - 35%, food waste - 41%, plastics - 3%, glass - 8%, metals - 4%, textiles and other - 9%.
Now, after harsh presidential criticism of the giant Balashikha landfill, which has long been boring to local residents and has now gained all-Russian “fame,” the topic of constructing waste incineration plants has again become relevant. In connection with the liquidation of this and the upcoming closure of a number of landfills near Moscow, a decision was made to build a network of factories of a fundamentally new generation in the region, using WPC plasma gasification technology - one of the most advanced and environmentally friendly today.
Each such plant is capable of processing 1,500 tons of unsorted waste per day (500,000 tons per year). The plasma gasification unit operates at temperatures above 5,500 °C, ensuring almost complete conversion of feedstock into the purest synthetic gas and 80% energy recovery.
The final product of the process can be different - the same electricity (50 MWh), steam or liquid fuel. Inorganic substances are removed as an inert slag, which is cooled and converted into a non-hazardous, non-leachable product, after which it can be sold as building material filler.
Finally, the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is radically reduced.
Pyrolysis, hydropyrolysis, “stoker”, depolymerization, direct smelting, gasification, esterification, anaerobic digestion, fluidized bed and fluidization process are all names of technologies and their varieties from the oldest to the most modern, reflecting the variety of approaches in the search for the fastest, an effective and harmless way to recover energy through waste recycling. Without going into details, we note that each technology has its pros and cons, its supporters and opponents. But, one way or another, the trend is already evident and progress, as they say, cannot be stopped. Once upon a time, nuclear energy seemed something unrealistic, but why is “garbage” worse? On the contrary, it’s even immeasurably safer!
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WalMart Stores Inc, Tesco Plc and Marks & Spencer Group supermarkets are now actively interested in the energy released by leftover sandwiches, chicken fat, fish heads and other organic matter.
British supermarkets are planning to use food waste to generate electricity. WalMart Stores Inc, Tesco Plc and Marks & Spencer Group supermarkets are now actively interested in the energy released by leftover sandwiches, chicken fat, fish heads and other organic matter.
First, some statistics. According to the forecasts of the European Commission, by 2020 humanity will throw away up to 40% of food products - and this figure seems simply absurd, because we spend a huge amount of all kinds of resources to produce food. Supermarkets in Europe throw away about 90 million tons of food per year. Some of them are sorted during the production process, and the rest is sent to a landfill only because several samples did not pass quality control, or the labels were put on crookedly... In Ukraine, approximately 7 million tons of various products await the same fate - in a word, this is the problem exists almost everywhere.
But not everything is so simple: today there are a number of environmental taxes, including a tax on waste disposal. The main purpose of these payments is not so much to replenish the state budget, but to strongly encourage citizens to be careful and thoughtful about the environment. These taxes, as a rule, are spent on the maintenance of environmental control bodies, transferred to environmental funds, and directed towards the development and implementation of waste-free technologies, waste disposal, and cleanup of old landfills.
The UK's landfill tax makes landfilling expensive: £64 per tonne, with an additional £8 added each year. This means that today every large supermarket is losing at least 1% of its annual turnover as a result. This explains the desire of trading giants to invest more than $18.2 billion in new types of energy over the past five years, according to Bloomberg. In search of new financial solutions, UK companies are exploring how energy from chicken legs, fish heads and sandwich scraps can help reduce energy and waste transport costs.
In less wealthy countries, they have long realized what benefits can be derived from garbage heaps. Concerned about a shortage of cheap energy sources, the Philippines began extracting energy from an anaerobic digestion landfill near Manila. Here, without oxygen, bacteria turn garbage into a slurry that releases a decent amount of methane. So decent that it is enough to illuminate the streets of a nearby city. Since there is nowhere to put the garbage, we need to at least use it wisely, the local authorities decided, and they made the right decision.
Many cities in Brazil have already built plants that burn food waste to produce electricity. From one ton of waste you can get approximately 8 MJ of energy, which means saving an average of 214 kg of standard fuel. These figures fully justify the desire to use waste as fuel, not to mention reducing the load on municipal landfills.
Large waste transportation company Waste Management Inc. has already acquired stakes in eight companies developing systems for converting waste into electricity and fuel. British authorities estimate that at this rate, by 2020, biofuels will provide 8% of the country's energy needs, which is equivalent to saving $13 billion. However, when supermarkets finally green their business, the flow of taxes from entrepreneurs will also decrease - so the authorities will have to find new sources of sponsorship for environmental funds.
