As of: 24.06.2010

 

• Title: Opening address

• Speaker: Parliamentary State Secretary Katherina Reiche
• Occasion: Waste to Energy Conference
• Date/Location: 24.06.2010, Malta

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First of all I would like to greet Minister Pullicino,
the representatives of the Maltese government and authorities and all participants that have come together today to learn about new technologies and concepts, to exchange their knowledge and experiences and to discuss future developments in the field of waste to energy.

I am especially happy to see that we are working together on an international level to solve the problems connected with these issues.

We are all here today to talk about waste and energy, two fundamental issues in the protection of our environment and two issues that have changed radically in the past decades.

In the past, "getting rid" of our waste was the main concern of waste managers. At the same time energy was comparatively cheap and we were not yet as conscious of the fact that someday our fossil fuels will be gone. Greenhouse gases and climate change were not an issue and definitely not perceived as a problem by the public.

All this has changed and has had consequences for all areas of our lives, not least for our waste. In Europe we have already made great progress in establishing ecologically safe waste management, but this is not enough anymore! If we consider our finite resources and rising worldwide demand for raw materials, the importance of waste as a source of these materials is continuously growing.

Recent studies come to the conclusion that the use of raw materials will increase from about 150 billion tonnes to 660 billion tonnes worldwide. We will need more than four times as much as today!

Obtaining these resources often has negative consequences for the environment, for example high emissions of greenhouse gases and irreversible damage to soil and water. In addition, the need for and the procuring of raw materials can be a source of social and even military conflicts. This means we must use our resources as efficiently as possible and we must recycle resources as much as possible. Economic growth cannot be accompanied by an increase in the use of raw materials at the same rate in future.

Efficient use of resources means that we must use fewer primary raw materials to produce a defined amount of a certain product. This, in turn, means the use of secondary raw materials - i.e. raw materials from waste - can help us increase resource efficiency and contribute to sustainability.

In Germany, one of the key elements of increased resource efficiency is waste management. Waste management, in particular recycling of resources obtained from waste, is a central and important element to substitute primary raw materials.

As well as the widely known recycling of plastics, metals and paper, this also means we must try to recycle rare elements such as titanium, tantalum and niobium, which are important for the electronics and the solar industry. The use of plant nutrients in biowaste as a substitute for mineral fertilisers, even helping to protect our soils by supplying organic matter, is a further example. There are many more.

In Germany we have a high level of recycling for a number of waste streams. Even so we want to further increase the amount being recycled. European legislation - the Waste Framework Directive to be specific - includes recycling quotas of 50% for paper, metal, plastics and glass.

In upcoming German legislation we are establishing recycling quotas of 65% for all municipal waste. We are also setting the recycling quota for construction and demolition waste at 80% instead of 70%.

These ambitious quotas seem appropriate considering the established waste management systems in Germany.

The issues we are addressing are of major importance for the future, and we feel that even in economically challenging times we must continue working on these challenges.

At the same time, in addition to using our resources sustainably we must also think about using our energy efficiently. We must find substitutes for the fossil fuels that will not last forever and we must also combat the negative environmental impact of using these fossil fuels. Climate change may be the biggest challenge the world has ever faced and we must act quickly. Again, waste management offers solutions.

A recent study in Germany shows that in 1990 the German waste sector added to the emission of greenhouse gases. Today, municipal waste management in Germany, including waste wood recovery, helps protect the climate by saving around 18 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents.

Compared with 1990 an emission reduction of about 56 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents has been achieved by the waste sector. This roughly corresponds to the CO2 emissions of 7.7 million cars. The waste sector is thus contributing approximately 20% to Germany’s overall reduction in the framework of the Kyoto target of 280 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents by 2012.

There is also further potential to save greenhouse gas emissions by using more waste in the ecologically best way and by further improving treatment plants and introducing new technological solutions.

If we are considering greenhouse gas emissions from waste, two major aspects must be focused on. One, of course, is the emission of greenhouse gases from the landfilling of organic waste. When organic waste is landfilled and decomposes it produces methane. Methane is extremely damaging to the environment as it is more than twenty times as harmful to the atmosphere as CO2. To avoid these emissions it is necessary to reduce the landfilling of organic materials, either by separate collection and recycling of these materials or, where this is not possible, by stabilising the household waste before landfilling.

Landfilling untreated municipal waste was banned in Germany in 2005 and Germany is resolutely continuing along this course. Today, all municipal waste undergoes either thermal or mechanical-biological treatment, and the energy contained in waste is used as far as possible.

The other aspect influencing climate change is the possibility we have to obtain energy from waste. There is now a wide range of technologies and solutions to do exactly that. These technologies range from incineration with a high level of energy recovery to the production of biofuel or the use of anaerobic digestion to obtain biogas and heat.

A much more difficult question to answer is what is the best way to do this? The best option may vary depending on the specific waste streams and the regional and local conditions. In some cases anaerobic digestion in biogas plants - a widely used technology in Germany - may be the ecologically best option. In other cases incineration may lead to a higher energy recovery.

It is always necessary to asses the specific situation - this can make waste management seem complicated as there is no universal solution. On the other hand we must bear in mind that we do have the technologies and solutions and a wide range of experiences, so we are able to choose from many options and can focus on strategies that combine ecological with economical advantages.

These strategies are widely recognised and the European Union has considered them in a number of strategy papers and in European waste legislation.

I would like to give you some examples:

The reduction of the amount of landfilled organic matter to combat methane emissions is a major element of the European Landfill Directive. The Waste Framework Directive - also European legislation - defines the waste hierarchy, with the prevention of waste as the best option, followed by reuse, recycling and then incineration, if appropriate measures have been taken to recover the energy.

The final option, if all other options are not appropriate, is disposal, by incineration without energy recovery or by landfilling to avoid pollution and negative impacts on our environment.

There are many other examples showing that Europe has committed itself to becoming a sustainable recycling society, employing environmentally friendly methods of modern waste management.

These are not only concerns we have in Germany or in Malta, or even only European concerns. These are problems we must solve on a global level!

Europe has the chance to set an example.

Our conference today - Waste to Energy - is part of the way forward to solving the challenges ahead of us.

Waste to energy means a chance to use something we do not want anymore to get something we desperately need. It is a chance to avoid negative impacts on the environment through sustainable waste management. As a result of modern technologies, emissions from waste incineration are very low nowadays and waste incineration is an accepted technology in Germany. Communication between authorities, incineration plant operators and the public, as well as transparency regarding emission values, have contributed significantly to public acceptance.

We will be hearing about the "Waste to Water" feasibility study, which was carried out through a twinning project between the Maltese Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs and the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

This study is an example of the integrated approach necessary to find the best option in every respect - environmentally and economically. As well as the technologies we will be hearing about, an optimal use of the energy is a key element for a positive impact on CO2 emissions when using waste as a source of energy.

In Malta a large amount of energy has to be used to produce enough drinking water. A central issue of the study is the best approach to using the energy from waste to substitute fossil fuels in this case.

The specific solutions analysed for the situation in Malta are of interest to other countries facing the same challenges. Especially for islands, problems in developing waste management systems are often similar and the results of the study can be transferred and will hopefully assist these countries in finding the best option.

Malta has been a member of the European Union for less than ten years. In this short time Malta has had to implement European legislation and environmental standards.

Germany has had decades to achieve these goals. Malta is also a small country and an island. Malta is densely populated and has to cope with the ecological impact of a high number of tourists coming to enjoy the beauty of the island each year. Malta has risen to this huge challenge and is addressing these important environmental issues. I welcome the cooperation between our countries and hope we can continue the good work in future.

This conference is a further step to achieve our common goals. I hope that all present will gain valuable insights, have fruitful discussions and that this conference will initiate future cooperation in the fields of sustainability, protection of our resources and in averting the negative impacts of climate change.

Thank you for your attention.