Potential of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) as renewable energy resource in Europe

This study explores the situation of waste management options currently employed and investigates how MSW can contribute to increase the renewable energy supply in Europe. For this purpose, a GIS-based methodology was developed to analyse the spatial distribution of MSW resources and to identify the optimal location of potential new WtE plants. The Global Human Settlements (GHS) project from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) was used as spatial proxy for the spatial distribution of the MSW. The results correspond to geospatial layers at 1 sq. km cell grid for the target year of 2015 for the following resources: generated waste, recycled waste, and waste sent to composting.