ONLINE NEWS 24 November 2017
Fortum has published its updated version of Energy Review, which focuses on the Circular Economy. The original version was published in June 2017.
EU waste legislation, the so-called Circular Economy Package, is under final reading. Fortum strongly supports the improvements connected to traceability and separation of hazardous waste as well as decontamination of the waste to be recycled by removing unwanted hazardous substances. This is vital for ensuring a safe circular economy.
“The ambitious recycling targets are needed not only for municipal waste, but also for industrial and commercial waste. We support quality recycling, which can be developed by eco-design and the co-operation of manufacturing and waste management,” notes one of the authors of the review, Harri-Pekka Korhonen, from Fortum’s Public Affairs.
The thermal treatment with energy recovery is a vital component of a circular economy. Rather than landfilling waste residues, they should be recovered as energy –and thus, help reduce the use of virgin fossil and renewable fuels in heat and electricity production.
The EU-28 still landfills more than 62 million tonnes of municipal waste every year. Landfilling biodegradable waste accounts for a major part of waste management’s negative impacts on climate change. This waste contains also a huge amount of recoverable energy. Therefore, Fortum supports banning the landfilling of recyclable and recoverable waste and suggests optimal use of Europe’s existing waste-to-energy capacity by allowing cross-border transfers of waste, if the alternative for the waste is landfilling.
Fortum Corporation
Group Communications
Further information:
Harri-Pekka Korhonen, Head of Heat Policies and Regulations, tel. +358 50 452 9321
Auli Westerholm, Public Relations Manager, Recycling and Waste Solutions, tel. +358 50 5300 264
Read more:
Energy Review in English