EU 2020 targets for household waste: SC, SRF and BMT roles

Waste management is changing rapidly in European Union, thanks to the development of new directives that point out the importance of increasing selective collection applied to household waste together with their mass and energy valorization. In this context, biological mechanical treatment and co-combustion are seen as useful processes to comply with the European Union requests. In particular, solid recovered fuel production and valorization can reduce the need of new plants for direct combustion. The composition of residual municipal solid waste can be significantly different from country to country, depending on composition of waste as is and a different organization of selective collection. These aspects are analyzed through three scenarios where the roles of selective collection, solid recovered fuel and bio-mechanical treatment are pointed out.