Waste management needs more than good intentions.

And what about waste that cannot be recycled?

In current public discourse, there is a very attractive narrative: that everything can be recycled or composted if we simply change our habits. It is a hopeful vision… but deeply incomplete.

The reality is that not everything is recyclable, not even the materials that are most commonly promoted as such. PET plastic, for example, cannot be recycled infinitely. Even in its first round, it is often no longer useful to be a bottle again, but rather becomes products of lower value, with limited life cycles. And when that cycle ends... where does that residue end up?

At the municipal and regional level, it is often proposed as the only alternative to continue depending on landfills, a technology widely questioned due to its environmental impact: emission of methane - a gas 80 times more powerful than CO₂ in its first 20 years -, contamination of underground water tables, landscape and social degradation. And yet, we continue to consider them part of the base system.

What we need is an honest and technically informed conversation about all the tools available. Today there are thermal treatment technologies such as modern incineration - which reduces methane emissions by more than 80% compared to landfills - and others even more advanced such as flash thermolysis, which allows non-recyclable waste to be processed without generating polluting emissions.

These technologies do not compete with recycling or composting, they complement it. They are a realistic and clean response to the waste fractions that no one wants to see today, but that continue to exist.

Talking about a circular economy without considering solutions for non-recyclable waste is turning a blind eye to a crucial part of the problem. And as long as we do not have the technological and logistical capacity to recycle 100% of our waste (spoiler: there is still a long way to go), continuing to ignore modern solutions means deepening the sacrifice zones.

It is not about choosing between recycling or incineration. It is about moving towards a comprehensive system, with different layers of solution, where each technology plays its role in an efficient, clean and sustainable waste ecosystem.

📚 References:

• Eduljee, G.H. (1995). Risk assessment of dioxin emissions from municipal waste incineration.

• Hester, R.E. & Harrison, R.M. (1995). Waste Incineration and the Environment. Royal Society of Chemistry.

• Crowley, D. et al. (2003). Health and Environmental Effects of Landfilling and Incineration of Waste - A Literature Review. Dublin Institute of Technology.

• Olofsson, M., Sundberg, J., & Sahlin, J. (2005). Evaluating waste incineration as treatment and energy recovery method from an environmental point of view. Chalmers University of Technology.

• Denison, R. (2002). Environmental life-cycle comparisons of recycling, landfilling, and incineration: A review of recent studies.