ENERGY RELATED TO SUSTAINABLE WASTE HANDLING TECHNOLOGY

ABSTRACT Waste is an integral element in human life. In order to develop a more sustainable waste handling, it is necessary to review the possibilities for redesigning waste products, and for minimising the energy consumption associated with the waste handling. In the households the physiological waste and waste produced in the kitchen can either be removed as wastewater or as solid waste. Together with our possibilities for regulating the water consumption, this gives us the potential for designing waste handling and optimising the related energy consumption. By redirecting organic kitchen waste from the wastewater stream to the solid waste, more organic matter will be available for energy production either by incineration or biogas production. By redirecting the solid organic kitchen waste to the wastewater stream, by the use of garbage grinders, the performance of the nitrogen removal process at wastewater treatment plants can be improved. By disconnecting the toilet waste, or just the urine, from the wastewater stream, the resulting wastewater will have a nitrogen concentration so low that no nitrogen removal is needed at the wastewater treatment plant. Waste design, with the aim of reducing the energy consumption, can result in major changes in the wastewater and solid waste handling technologies in the future. KEY WORDS Energy, organic household wastes, solid waste management, sustainability, waste design, wastewater management