This Site is for Educational Purposes

Waste Recovery Seattle International, LLC. is a consulting company focused on international environmentally sound waste management practices with an emphasis on sustainability and zero waste.

WRSI’s primary focus is based on European Union (EU) environmental practices and policies. The EU adopts most of its environmental policies from Germany, and Germany supplies over 50% of the EU’s (27 countries) environmental research. Germany’s state of the art waste management practices have become the foundation of WRSI’s philosophy and activities.

Since 2005, Germany has banned untreated Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in landfills. Politicians recognized that hypothetical data that is too often used in pro-landfill arguments. Acting upon that data risk public health and safety. Utilizing proven, state of the art technology such as Advanced Thermal Recycling (ATR) allows for exact measurement of input and, most importantly, the output.

Over the past 20 years, Germany has been experimenting with so called "alternative technologies" such as pyrolysis, gasification, plasma arc etc. The continuous performance failure of these technologies led Germany to favor mass burn/incineration technology. This technology has proven itself over the past 100 years as the most reliable, economical and environmentally sound method to utilize municipal solid waste in the most sustainable way possible.

This website is designed to guide the reader through the confusing technologies and policies dealing with solid waste management.

WRSI TV showcase presentation “Why Advanced Thermal Recycling/Waste-to-Energy should replace landfilling”
Please log onto www.metrokc.gov/kctv - click on Schedule to the left and look through the weekdays and times for the program called Waste to Energy Showcase. Please log on during show-time (Pacific Standard Time) and watch live over the internet. The show-times will vary depending on the day of the week. The program is about 2 hours in length and covers all major aspects. Shortly this program will also be available on www.greenenergytv.com.

Another Successful Study Mission:
Video of WRSI’s European Study Mission March, 2007.
This video documents the successful WRSI delegation to Germany where the delegates met with MSW industry association leaders, Members of the German Parliament (Green Party Members), Federal Environmental representatives to closely examine and tour Advanced Thermal Recycling, Waste to Energy, Refuse Derived Fuel, State of the Art Recycling and Sorting and Biogas facilities.

"Disposing of waste in landfills is not a solution. It is the most unsustainable way of waste treatment..."
German Green Party on waste disposal May 25th 2007 – read statement.

How waste treatment relates to emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and why Germany enacted a law that banns untreated waste in landfills.
Read the statement by the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

Environmental Study-Waste Sector’s Contribution to Climate Protection"
The findings of this study show clearly that the municipal waste sector makes a significant contribution to achieving the climate protection objectives in Germany. Especially through the ban on landfill of untreated waste and the resulting reduction in methane emissions, the waste sector accounts for a large share – 20 % – of the reductions achieved to date.
Read the Entire Paper

Recommended Reading

• German Green Party Supports Waste Incineration and the Use of Waste as a Resource 
  
• Worried About Emmisions? Read This First! 
  
• Key Facts and Benefits 
• History of Thermal Recycling^®
• Comparing Landfilling, WtE and Mechanical Biological Treatment
  - See the Results!^(c)

Statement By The German Green Party Feb, 2006
Alternatives for the Waste Industry

The 2020 target
The implementation of the Ordinance on Environmentally Compatible Storage of Waste from Human Settlements and on Biological Waste Treatment Facilities by the SPD-Green German Federal Government on 1 June 2005 was a milestone in waste management policy. It was a decisive point along the path that will end forever the “burying and forgetting” of waste from human settlements in landfill sites and so finally consign this least sustainable form of waste disposal to “history”. However, the Ordinance on Environmentally Compatible Storage of Waste from Human Settlements and on Biological Waste Treatment Facilities was just a first stage on this path and raises questions about the way forward from here and the further objectives we should be pursuing.

Alliance 90/The Greens are campaigning to end completely the surface disposal of waste from human settlements on landfill sites by 2020. This ambitious target presupposes the complete recovery or sorting of waste from human settlements. A look at what is already technically possible today soon makes it clear that the 2020 target is not utopian, but a genuinely realistic objective.

These days, waste from human settlements can already be sorted fully automatically and, consequently, the valuable substances it contains almost completely recovered. Not only can the sorting residues that are left over be used to generate energy in waste incineration plants operated to very high standards, the by-products of waste incineration can also be reused. Slags are now attaining levels of quality that permit at least their limited emplacement without protective measures, for example in road construction. The reusable products of waste incineration include high-quality hydrochloric acid and gypsum for use in the construction materials industry.

The calculations assume that, in line with the latest developments in technical capabilities, the only unrecoverable residual substances that would remain from what was originally one tonne of waste from human settlements would be about 20 kilograms of boiler and filter dust and 7 kilograms of mixed brine. This means that, overall, less than one percent of the original volume of the waste would be left over and would actually have to be “disposed of” by classic methods (underground).3 The subsequent sorting and reuse of products from the incineration of sorting residues would be decisive for the complete recovery of waste from human settlements. In this respect, we Greens want to make sure German policy is heading in the right direction in good time. For us, it is one of the main aspirations of sustainable waste management that we should not leave the generations who follow us any more landfill sites full of rubbish.

Read the Entire Article

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