From unsustainable waste to sustainable energy

Global population growth is not going to slow down. This growth is explained by many factors such as deeper scientific knowledge, better health care, smarter technology, optimized and expanding urbanization, etc. This growth is rather positive, by expanding the pool of potential human cooperation and innovation, but it is also somewhat negative, considering the increasing amount of residual waste – more particularly municipal solid waste (MSW) – that goes along with it, as well as many other environmental issues.

Accordingly, it is crucial that we work together in order to develop and implement solutions that can reduce the negative environmental impacts of our lifestyle. Especially since it is possible to go from unsustainable waste to sustainable energy with environmentally-friendly solutions and alternatives, such as hydropower, wind energy, solar energy, biogas, biomass, geothermal, etc. Encouragingly, all these clean energy sources are nowadays continuously increasing their presence.

Sustainability is a cyclic triad that has had to start at some point

Even though it is already vastly documented that our current consumerist lifestyle has considerable negative impacts on our environment, sustainability is still mostly seen as a choice rather than a necessity by our civilization. Nonetheless, it appears to be an evident necessity and not exactly a choice.

If not, how can we justify building all that we build and have built if we are to destroy it in the long run?

Especially since we fundamentally do not only build material stuff such as cars, buildings, things, etc. Before anything, we build families, communities, societies, i.e. a civilization. And we build all of this among the environment that graciously welcomes us.

As you probably know, sustainability, as conceptualized by the human race, relies on a triad in which coincides the sustainable development of the areas of the environment, society, and the economy:

• The environment is where everyone/everything comes from, lives, develops, interacts, transacts, passes by, ends up, disappears, etc.;
• Society has implemented itself in the environment because humans are basically social animals and fundamentally weak and vulnerable if left alone into the wild;
• The economy has been established by society to function and develop more efficiently.

Indeed, the sustainability triad must have had a start before being engaged in its perpetual cycle, and the most plausible starting point appears to be the environment.

Wastage is more widespread than we might think

Society has been for decades exploiting vigorously the resources of the environment, as well as its natural absorption capacity. Among other things, society uses fossil fuels to cut down trees in order to grow food. The following words – stronger quoted than summarized – from the Global Waste Management Outlook (GWMO) report, as published in 2015 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) jointly with the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), depicts precisely the direct and indirect consequences of our current way of doing things:

“According to 2013 FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) estimates, approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of edible food – one third of the total produced for human consumption worldwide – is lost or wasted annually. This food, if turned into meals, would be sufficient to provide nutrition and an adequate basis for health and well-being for over 2 billion people – more than double the official FAO estimate of undernourished persons in the world.

Moreover, this loss means that both the resources used and the environmental impacts sustained by the climate, land, water, and biodiversity in order to produce this food have been for nothing. For example, the global GHG emissions related to wasted food were estimated at 3.3 Gtonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2007. This level of CO2 emissions would rank the wasting of food as the third largest ‘country’ in the world, surpassing every nation but the United States and China. The financial loss due to food wastage is about USD 750 billion based on producer prices alone.” *

From these facts, and probably because the sustainability triad is cyclic and its three areas directly related, we can affirm that wastage is already widespread and negatively impacts the economy, society, and the environment. Thus, widespread wastage must be addressed in order to restore a global sustainable viability in the long-term.

Biogas to optimize MSW management and reduce wastage while exploiting its sustainable energy potential

A good way of addressing a fair proportion of that widespread wastage is biogas, obtained through the anaerobic digestion of organic waste – food waste, wastewater sludge, livestock manure, etc. Basically, anaerobic digestion allows the exploitation of the remaining energy and fertilizing potential of organic waste, while reducing the amount of organic waste ultimately thrown in landfills with the rest of MSW.

Therefore, anaerobic digestion allows to optimize waste management, minimize its costs, reduce GHG emissions, and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers by using instead digestate, while biogas itself offers a renewable energy alternative to fossil fuels for electricity, heating, and transportation.

In the end, as the economy has a stronger hold than ever, society still has the opportunity to decide whether widespread wastage should keep on holistically harming the sustainability triad, or if it can be used to foster the re-establishment of its sane balance. Organic waste retains a tremendous sustainable energy potential awaiting to be exploited and which, especially in the long-term, could greatly benefit the environment and society, as well as the economy.

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* United Nations Environment Programme (2015). Global Waste Management Outlook, p. 114.

Sources: Renewable Energy World, Gaz Métro, Nature, United Nations Environment Programme