Do we throw away the waste? No, they will be the fuel for our investments

When we talk about waste they come to mind often landfills , cities with streets full of piles of garbage or scenes seen on television on plastic floating islands in the oceans .

But in reality, waste can be very different things , if we want to see it in a different light, if we think about it a moment before to throw in the environment a glass or plastic bottle, or a bag or a newspaper or a classic banana peel.

Yes, because waste can really be the treasure we don't understand , the fuel to move the world, the means to save the planet from greenhouse gases, the key to eliminating deforestation and the way to have the cleanest and most fish-populated seas.

Utopia? No, we leave that to the dreamers , who is more concrete, one day, wondered what they would do if they had 100,000 tons of organic waste that derive from the kitchens of our homes and from the waste green of our cities and villages.

The A2A, Italian company active in waste recycling and promoter of sustainable energy production, has given a concrete answer to this question, in fact, it has decided to build, in the province of Pavia , a plant that could treat that quantity of organic waste, with the aim of producing compost, an ecological fertilizer, and electricity through the production of biomethane.

Through anaerobic digestion, it will be possible to produce 8.2 million cubic meters of biomethane which will to feed the energy consumption of about 20,000 people, moreover it will be possible to produce about 20,000 tons of compost to be used, as an organic fertilizer, in working the fields, without polluting the groundwater and poisoning the birds with the use of chemical fertilizers.

The plant, in addition to being a clear example of how waste can be invested rather than thrown away, helps the local community to reduce dependence on fossil fuels for produce energy.

If these types of investments multiplied, more than 6 billion cubic meters of biomethane could be produced in Italy, which would be equivalent to approximately 22% of what we imported from Russia, and about 10% of the national requirement in a year.

Italian energy imports can be calculated in about 78% of national needs, against about 60% of other European countries, values that must push us to think that it is right to increase national and renewable energy levers, such as wind, sun, water and waste.

Another important note is that, through the massive use of waste, it is possible to eliminate or minimize landfilling.

Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.