Opportunities for economically and environmentally sound energy and resource recovery in Asia

Although the increase of solid waste generation is a big issue faced by the whole world, it is more severe in Asian countries owing to their rapid urbanization and industrialization over the past few decades, especially in large developing countries such as China and India. In order to solve the problems relating to the energy shortage and the rapid growth of resource consumption, and to address the environmental pollution caused by solid waste generation, more and more countries in Asia are focusing on energy and resource recovery from waste. This chapter introduces the current status of waste generation and recycling in selected Asian countries, and discusses the existing problems and challenges in waste management and recycling. It is found that increasing population and economic development not only contribute to the sharp rise in solid waste generation but also to its increasing complexity and hazardousness. In contrast to the selected developed and developing countries in Asia, the overall development of waste recycling is not balanced. Because of backward technologies, environmentally sound solid waste disposal levels and resource recovery rates of solid waste in Asia is very low. Nowadays, the awareness of the public and governments of solid waste management and recycling is rising; policies and regulation systems related to solid waste have been established; and new technologies (e.g. waste incineration power generation, biomass fuel, etc.) are being developed. The chapter concludes that energy and resource recovery in Asia has tremendous market potential in the future decades.