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NETWORK / 11 / FEBRUARY 2017 26% 15% O n s i t e : Vestforbraending incineration plant u Denmark's largest waste management company u 25% of waste collected is incinerated for energy u Processes more than 1 million metric tons of waste annually u Collectively owned by 19 municipalities u Not-for-profit, proceeds reduce waste collection costs u Produced 1,250,000MWh DH in 2015 and 295,000MWh of electricity u Heat is distributed through 3 DH networks With an area of just 42,925km 2 , Denmark does not have room to bury its waste. This, coupled with its green agenda, means that waste is treated as a resource rather than a problem. In the UK, 26.5 million tonnes of waste were produced in 2012. The UK cannot afford to continue sending its waste to landfill, and to meet its CO2 reduction targets it must also find a way to better integrate its energy and waste sectors. Denmark is already providing the solution to some of the UK's waste problem by im- porting waste from the UK for incineration, but its policy of energy recovery could also provide the blueprint for a valuable source of heat for the UK. During the trip to Copenhagen, Network visited the largest waste management company in Denmark at its incineration plant in Glostrup in the western suburbs of the capital. The Vestforbraending plant also undertake recycling, landfill and collection schemes. Much like its district heating (DH) coun- terparts, the company is owned by 19 local authorities in Copenhagen and is operated not-for-profit. Proceeds from the sale of heat help keep waste collection taxes down. Waste collection is a sophisticated business in Denmark, with more than 30 dif- ferent categories for recycling. Citizens pay for the privilege, but it is a drop in the ocean among a sea of taxes. One metric ton of waste is can produce 2MWh of heat or two-thirds of a MWh of electricity. On its own, Vestforbraending handles more than a million tons of waste a year. In 2015 it produced 1,250,000MWh of district heat – equivalent to the consumption of 75,000 households – and 295,000MWh of electricity. The heat is used in the company's own small DH network in Copenhagen and sold on to a pair of larger networks. In comparison the entire UK used just 1.9 million tonnes for waste recovery in 2014, revealing the vast potential this resource could have in the UK if incineration were adopted at any scale. Although the heat from the plant is priori- tised over other fuel sources, Denmark's green agenda will ultimately reduce the con- tribution of incineration to DH. Currently 5% of waste is landfilled, 25% is incinerated and 70% is recycled. Despite already undertaking extensive sorting for recycling, more waste should move from incineration to recycling in the future. The cardboard in the image below shows how the process can be improved.