This case study explores how public-private partnerships can help make clean technologies for turning waste into energy accessible to cities.
Relevant and practical integrated waste management approaches are crucial for countering public health impacts of uncollected waste and environmental impacts of open dumping and burning. Medium to large cities in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) considers this as a pressing need to help them attain environmental sustainability and improve the quality of life of their citizens.
Turning municipal solid waste into energy through the waste-to-energy process is one of the popular strategies of solving the rise of generated waste. It involves incinerating waste to produce energy in the form of electricity or heat. Unfortunately, lack of access to finance and a gap in technological knowledge made it difficult for cities to adopt this strategy.
Big cities in developing countries are centers of economic growth, and magnets for people seeking better opportunities. That is the good part.