Let’s Talk Waste-to-Energy as a Climate Solution

Following up from the March 28th presentation about waste, there were many questions about Waste-to-Energy (WTE) and the climate and environmental implications. This is a dedicated follow-up discussion focused completely on WTE. This is a Q&A style session (with a 15-minute introductory overview) to learn more about technology, functionality, integration, planning, and everything that you wanted to know about thermal treatment of waste.

In our discussion, we will have the opportunity to learn more about the thermal treatment of waste. For example: Did you know that China is adding/building 50 WTE facilities a year? Did you know that > 90% of Copenhagen is heated throughout the winter with WTE? Did you know that the Mona Lisa painting in the Louvre is heated/cooled and gets its lighting from WTE? Did you know that the entire light rail system in Amsterdam is powered by WTE or that the Ford Motor company in Cologne, Germany is powered by WTE? Or that the City of Vienna uses Waste for heating and cooling of buildings? Did you know that the Minnesota Twins Baseball Stadium uses the heat from the local WTE facility to grow the grass during the cold season? WTE facilities in Europe and Japan use the heat for garden greenhouses, swimming pools, other industry and a number of other applications in lieu of Non-Renewable Energy. WTE is a transitional technology as the 3rd Step - Energy (and Material) Recovery - in the internationally recognized Waste Management Hierarchy after 1) Source Reduction/Avoidance & Reuse, 2) Recycling and Composting (incl. Biogas) to limit whatever possible going to the 4th and least sustainable, least desirable, most costly step - the Treatment and Disposal of waste. We hope you can join us for this informative and interactive discussion.

About our Speaker: Philipp Schmidt-Pathmann, MBA, MIS is a waste management expert and strategist based in Washington. He first came to the US in 1986 as an exchange student to Issaquah. In 1998, Philipp founded WRSI (Waste Recovery Seattle International) and began exploring and developing opportunities in the Waste-to-Energy field. In 2008 he co-founded GCS, in 2012 he founded the Zero Landfill Initiative, in 2013 he joined Neomer as a Partner and in October 2020 he founded the Institute for Energy and Resource Management – IeRM, a 501c3 Non-Profit Organization.

Philipp has been closely working with the US EPA, US DOE, a number of other national and international government agencies, institutes, universities and specialists in particular across North America and Europe. Over the course of the last two decades, he has presented to House and Senate in California, New York and Washington State on climate and technology topics with a focus on waste.
With the focus on scientific research and education, Philipp and his team now offer comprehensive solutions to national and international clients to assist them in understanding and pursuing opportunities in how to manage waste sustainably with a focus on closing the loop toward a circular economy. As part of their work, Philipp and his team of experts have studied and analyzed the U.S. waste management system for more than two decades.