(best examples and good practices) on household organic waste ...

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5. Existing <strong>practices</strong> on the management <strong>and</strong> treatment of
biodegradable waste
5.1. Introduction
A World Wide Web research was conducted in order for the most prominent
methods of treating <strong>and</strong> managing biodegradable waste at source to be
identified. The research showed that for the household treatment of
biodegradable waste mainly two methods are used worldwide today. These are
(Home composting <strong>and</strong> Home anaerobic digestion). The Composting method
is widely used today in most of the developed countries in the world in
addition to the household anaerobic digestion which is not used as much as
composting. Household anaerobic digesters though are a coming force in the
field of household waste treatment techniques but research has to be done first
in order for this technology to become efficient <strong>and</strong> available for a wider use by
the public.
In the waste management sector, most of the source separating schemes for
biodegradable waste applied mainly in the EU refer to source separation with
the use of (bags, bins etc.) <strong>and</strong> further treatment at household level (such as
composting) or at large scale waste treatment facilities. There are countries
such as Sweden that use different source separation techniques such as
‘vacuum systems’ for the transportation of waste to the treatment facilities.
The large scale driers for the drying of waste are mainly used today in sludge
processing (sludge drying) <strong>and</strong> for drying (pellets,grass,woodchips,etc). The
drying systems are also used in incinerators as part of their processes in order
to prepare the final input waste for incineration. The reason for this is that the
incoming waste has to be dried out first to become flammable (in order for the
excess moisture of the waste material to be removed).
In this section, some of the most successful management-treatment schemes
<strong>and</strong> <strong>practices</strong> which are currently operating at a national level <strong>and</strong> among
countries of the European Union (EU) are presented. These schemes are drawn
from several EU Member States, <strong>and</strong> consist of different technologies, including
mechanical treatment, composting, anaerobic digestion <strong>and</strong> thermal treatment
techniques. Starting with a brief analysis on the existing EU municipal waste
situation, we focus on centralized <strong>and</strong> decentralized, large <strong>and</strong> small scale
facilities <strong>and</strong> management schemes that treat Biodegradable waste. The case
studies considered are from the countries of, Italy, Germany, Netherl<strong>and</strong>s, UK,
Greece <strong>and</strong> Sweden. Also 4 of the most successful international waste
management facilities studies are been identified.