Waste management solutions

How to shape the future of waste?

With the increasing urbanization, waste management is a major global issue that governments face daily. The overproduction of waste has been causing negative impacts on our environment. Waste reduction and valorization need to be taken to the next level. What are sustainable solutions for waste disposal & management?

01. Benefits

Waste management benefits

Sustainable waste management is a key concept of the circular economy and offers many opportunities:

  • Economic: waste management involves collecting, sorting, treating, recycling, and when properly facilitated providing a source of energy and resources. Therefore, it has a huge economic potential that needs to be leveraged by public and private entities.
  • Social: besides creating jobs, improved waste management leads to a better quality of life for local populations, by improving hygiene conditions and reducing health risks related to illegal dumping and inadequate garbage collection.
  • Environmental: the main advantage of sustainable waste management is to lessen the impact on the environment, by improving air and water quality and contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Besides, reducing food waste also helps reduce the heavy environmental cost of producing more.

02. Definition

What is waste management?

First of all, there are many types of waste: municipal (household, commercial and demolition waste), hazardous (industrial), biomedical, electronic (e-waste), radioactive, etc. Waste management includes the collection, transport, valorization and disposal of these waste. More broadly, it includes any activity involved in the organization of waste management from production to final treatment.

The main principles of waste management are:

  1. Waste hierarchy, referring to the “3Rs rule” Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, waste prevention and minimisation being the most desirable goal.
  2. Extended producer responsibility, adding all the environmental costs to the market price of a product, including end-of-life disposal.
  3. The polluter pays principle, requiring that a waste generator pays for the appropriate disposal of the waste.

03. Impacts

Waste management methods

Waste management techniques include:

  • Landfills: a landfill, sometimes referred to as a garbage dump, is a place where waste is generally stored on the ground. Landfills are the most common and cheapest method for waste disposal in the world.
  • Incinerator: Incineration of waste is a technique of transformation by the action of fire. Waste combustion can be used to produce electricity and heat, but also is an important source of air pollution.
  • Recycling: recycling is the physical reprocessing of old materials such as metals, plastics and e-waste - industrial or household - into new products. The type of material collected for recycling can vary depending on the city and country.
  • Biological reprocessing: composting is a process of conversion and recovery of organic matter into a stabilized, hygienic, soil-like product rich in humic compounds: the compost. Anaerobic digestion is a process similar to composting, that allows the treatment of organic waste and sludge by fermentation in the absence of oxygen.
  • Waste collection: the collection of household waste is usually done by means of garbage trucks, which go to each point of garbage production to collect garbage. There are also collection systems where a network centralizes waste, such as automated vacuum collection.
  • Energy recovery: energy recovery from waste, often called waste-to-energy, is the process converting non-recyclable waste materials into usable heat, fuel or electricity through combustion, anaerobic digestion, gasification, pyrolyzation, etc.

04. Solutions

Waste management solutions

The Solar Impulse Label is granted to innovative waste management solutions that meet high standards of sustainability and profitability. Each solution goes through a strict assessment process performed by independent experts.

La Consigne Verte
Apr 2024
Use case available

La Consigne Verte

A smart bin associated with a digital environment to encourage the sorting of biowaste

  • Utilities (Water, Energy, Waste)
  • Agrifood & Natural Environment
Arqlite Smart Gravel
Mar 2021
Use case available

Arqlite Smart Gravel

Turning unrecyclable plastic to highly efficient materials for the built environment

  • Utilities (Water, Energy, Waste)
Micro Nano Bubble Flotation MNBF®
Mar 2021

Micro Nano Bubble Flotation MNBF®

Micro nano bubble flotation process for efficient sewer treatment of highly contaminated industrial wastes

  • Utilities (Water, Energy, Waste)
Thermal Rail TM
Aug 2020

Thermal Rail TM

A new paradigm for efficient data center design

  • Buildings & Constructions
View more

05. Implementations

Waste management solutions implementations

La Consigne Verte by TRIBIOVAL implemented by Le Connecteur in Biarritz (France) in 2023

Arqlite Smart Gravel by Arqlite implemented by Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles (United States) in 2021

Hesus Store by HESUS implemented by City of Paris in Paris (France) in 2021

Excess Materials Exchange (EME) by Excess Materials Exchange implemented by Enfield Council in Einfield (United Kingdom) in 2022

SAVE SAND by MS implemented by Vaills in Baho (France) in 2022

SAVE SAND by MS implemented by Hublet in Floreffe (Belgium) in 2024

Rockease Platform by Rockease implemented by VINCI Energies S.A. in Bordeaux (France) in 2022

Greenrail by Greenrail S.r.l. implemented by Ferrovie Emilia Romagna in Emilia Romagna Region (Italy) in 2018

FNX MODULES by Snam Groupe implemented by Snam Group in Aubin (France) in 2019

KITRO by KITRO implemented by Senevita Group, Property: Bernerrose in Zollikon  (Switzerland) in 2022

KITRO by KITRO implemented by SEMINARIS Hotel- und Kongressstätten-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH in Berlin (Germany) in 2024

Petrel Circular e-Commerce by Petrel implemented by Carrefour in Massy (France) in 2019

Sensoneo Smart Waste Management by SENSONEO implemented by Operator ICT in Prague (Czech Republic) in 2019

Sensoneo Smart Waste Management by SENSONEO implemented by Bratislava city in Bratislava (Slovakia) in 2021

FIT Food Waste Monitoring Tech by LightBlue Environmental Consulting implemented by Business Mauritius in Mauritius (Mauritius) in 2021

FIT Food Waste Monitoring Tech by LightBlue Environmental Consulting implemented by Hotels Magic Costa Blanca in Benidorm (Spain) in 2023

06. Challenges

Challenges & disadvantages

  1. Hazard: the first one while promoting recycling is to make sure both consumers and recyclers are protected from toxic and dangerous substances that can be found in waste.
  2. High costs: moreover, this cannot be seen as a short-term lucrative investment as it obviously requires a lot of money to implement sustainable waste management strategies.
  3. Quality of recycled products: downcycling, the recycling process that turns waste into products of inferior quality, can cause a problem regarding the quality of secondary products.

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pauline.michiels@solarimpulse.com