Evolution of WTE utilization - a global look. Asian perspective - waste incineration and it`s value in Japan

Incineration carries significant weight in waste disposal in general. Seventy-five percent of the total quantity of municipal solid waste is incinerated. In the year 1994, there were a total of 1,854 incineration plants in Japan. Waste heat from MSW incineration is utilized for power generation at most large-scale incineration plants. In 1994, a total of 3,376 industrial waste incineration plants existed in Japan. They have been contributing much toward waste volume reduction, improvement of the quality of landfill materials through conversion of organic substances into inorganic substances which are more beneficial for landfill purposes, and conservation of resources by energy recovery. But air pollution by exhaust substances - especially dioxin - from incineration plants pose a problem. This may place a big hurdle before future incineration plant projects. Small batch-type incineration furnaces are slowly dying out. Some municipalities will jointly construct a large incineration plant among themselves while others will consider introducing RDF producing plant, which is getting popular. More efforts will be made to melt and solify the incineration residue, reduce the environmental load imposed by pollutants in the exhaust gas from now on.