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:

Waste hierarchy, referring to the “3Rs rule” Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, waste prevention and minimisation being the most desirable goal.
Extended producer responsibility, adding all the environmental costs to the market price of a product, including end-of-life disposal.
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.

May 2018

Use case available

SEAB Energy - Flexibuster

A small-scale modular container for transforming organic waste into energy

Utilities (Water, Energy, Waste)
Agrifood & Natural Environment

Jun 2020

SCALE

Aims to create new material solutions through mindful use of sea waste resources

Industrial Processes & Consumer Goods
Utilities (Water, Energy, Waste)

Apr 2020

Negative & Positive Cooling from Waste

Thermochemical solid-gas adsoprtion reaction that turns waste or renewable heat into cold

Utilities (Water, Energy, Waste)
Industrial Processes & Consumer Goods

Nov 2020

Repairable Electronic Boards

A solution for repairing electronic boards for agricultural equipment

Agrifood & Natural Environment

05. Implementations

Waste management solutions implementations

SEAB Energy - Flexibuster by SEaB Energy implemented by Sepur in Thieverval-Grignon (France) in 2019

The EcoStock by Eco-Tech Ceram implemented by ArcelorMittal in Dunkerque (France) in 2022

The EcoStock by Eco-Tech Ceram implemented by Villeroy&Boch in Valence d'Agen (France) in 2023

Aqua Assist by Drylet, Inc. implemented by Hera group in Sassuolo (Italy) in 2021

MEAL CANTEEN by Meal Canteen - Deleted implemented by Lycée Stephen Liegeard in Bronchon (France) in 2021

The Patented Plagazi Process by Plagazi AB (publ) implemented by Municipality of Köping in Köping (Sweden) in 2024

The Patented Plagazi Process by Plagazi AB (publ) implemented by Gotlandsbolaget in Båstad (Sweden) in 2022

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

Smart Prepregs by CompPair Technologies Ltd. implemented by Innosuisse in Lausanne (Switzerland) in 2023

Bin-e Waste Management System by Bin-e implemented by Ambilamp in Madrid (Spain) 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

OPATRACE by OPALEAN implemented by Messageries Laitières in Vires (France) in 2021

OPATRACE by OPALEAN implemented by ADEO in Multiple cities (France) in 2022

OPATRACE by OPALEAN implemented by Leroy Merlin in Paris (France) in 2022

Clean & sustainable cities by Cortexia implemented by City of Geneva in Geneva (Switzerland) in 2019

06. Challenges

Challenges & disadvantages

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.
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.
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.

Connect with us

Any questions

Feel free to get in touch with us
pauline.michiels@solarimpulse.com

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