The Criticality of Composting

In 2011, the 27 states in the European Union composted on average 15 percent of municipal waste, with Austria composting 34 percent, the Netherlands 28 percent, and countries like France, Spain, and Germany each composting about 18 percent.

A 2019 article said that India produces 1.5 lakh tonnes of solid waste every day and its biodegradable fraction can be upto 70 per cent for various Indian cities. Not even 5 per cent of organic waste generated by cities is converted into compost in India, even though the Swachh Bharat Mission has committed to ensuring that all organic waste produced in Indian cities is processed into making compost.

Landfilling, although according to the waste hierarchy the worst option, is still the most used MSW disposal method in the EU. Landfills need to be constructed and operated in line with the EU Landfill Directive (impermeable barriers, methane capturing equipment) to avoid environmental damage from the generation of methane and effluent.

Bio-waste is a putrescible, generally wet waste. There are two major streams – green waste from parks, gardens etc. and kitchen waste. The former includes usually 50-60% water and more wood, the latter contains no wood but up to 80% water.
As the efficiency of incineration is lowered by the moist bio-waste, it can be beneficial to remove bio-waste from municipal waste.

Waste to Energy (WtE) plants need waste of high calorific value and low moisture content to generate electricity. Only non-biodegradable, non-recyclable waste should be sent to these plants, as per the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. This would include only non-recyclable plastics, polymers etc.

But in India, it’s mixed waste that’s sent to WtE plants. And this mixed waste (not considering inerts) has high vegetable and wet waste content – close to 60-70 percent. Whereas non-biodegradable non-recyclable waste comes to less than 10 percent of the mixed waste.

Moreover, as the waste is mostly unsegregated with high wet content, it’s unsuitable for burning. To burn, extra fuel is needed, which would make power generation itself inefficient.

Middle-class residents in big cities generate nearly 0.8 kg of waste per day. And nearly 60% or more of the daily waste generated in households is made up of organic matter.

With increasing food demand and depleting soil quality, city compost plays a very important role as a replacement or supplement to chemical fertilisers in replenishing the nutrient-depleted soil.

Fossil Fuel Production - and Consumption climbed dramatically - but some countries reduced their consumption !

The 20th century saw a large diversification of fossil energy consumption, with coal declining from 96 percent of total production in 1900 to less than 30 percent in 2000. Today, crude oil is the largest energy source, accounting for around 39 percent of fossil energy, followed by coal and natural gas at 33 and 28 percent, respectively.

The world's total production of fossil fuels grew from 54,000 Terrawatt Hours (TWh) in 1970 to 130,000 TWh in 2014 : 

• India's production of fossil fuels climbed in the same period from 600 to 3900 TWh. 
• Australia has a similar trajectory of 500 TWh in 1970 to 3900 TWh in 2014.
• Indonesia's production went up from 500 to 4700 TWh in 2014. 
• Iran's production went up from 2400 to 3900 TWh in 2014.
• And that of the US from 16000 TWh in 1970 to 21,000 TWh in 2014. 
• Russia moved from 9800 TWh in 1970 to 14800 in 2014. 
• China moved from 2400 TWh in 1970 to 22900 TWh in 2014. 
• Saudi Arabia was a real surprise - its production in 2014 was about double that of India at 8000 TWh, up from 2200 TWh in 1970.
• Canada from 1600 TWh in 1970 to 4600 TWh in 2014.  
• Qatar went from 200 TWh to 3000 TWh in 2014.
• UAE went from less than 500 TWh in 1970 to 2700 TWh in 2014.

Total consumption levels of fossil fuels in higher-income countries have typically peaked, and are now declining as they transition towards lower-carbon energy sources. For example, the United Kingdom's total fossil fuel consumption is at its lowest level in the last 50 years. In many lower-income countries, total consumption of fossil fuels continues to increase as a result of both population growth and rising incomes (resulting in higher per capita energy demands). Global fossil fuel consumption crossed 1.3 lakh TWh in 2014 :

• China's consumption of fossil fuels grew from 2900 TWh in 1970 to 30,900 TWh in 2014.
• India's fossil fuel consumption climbed from 670 TWh to 7120 in 2014.
• Iran's consumption grew from 161 to 3,000 TWh in 2014.
• USA's grew from 18,200 in 1970 to 23,000 TWh in 2014.
• Australia's consumption grew from 500 to 1500 TWh in 2014.
• Brazil increased its fossil fuel consumption from 320 to 2400 TWh in 2014.

European Countries that REDUCED their consumption from 1970 to 2014 (!) :

• Sweden reduced its fossil fuel consumption from 362 in 1970 to 202 TWh in 2014, thus down by 44 %.
• Denmark reduced its consumption from 240 to 154 TWh in 2014, a decline of 36 % !
• Romania reduced its fossil fuel consumption from 430 to 280 TW in 2014, a decline of 35 %. 
• The Czech Republic reduced its fossil fuel consumption from 521 to 364 TWh in 2014 (a reduction of 30 % !).
• Bulgaria reduced its fossil fuel consumption from 202 to 147 TWh in 2014 - thus down by 27 %.
• UK's fossil fuel consumption declined from 2400 to 1900 TWh in 2014, a decline of 21 %.
• Germany's fossil fuel consumption declined from 3500 to 2900 TWh in 2014, a reduction of 17 %.
• Hungary reduced its fossil fuel consumption from 213 in 1970 to 184 TWh in 2104, thus by 14 %.
• France's consumption declined from 1600 to 1400 TWh in 2014, thus lower by 13 %. 
• Belgium reduced its fossil fuel consumption from 534 TWh in 1970 to 529 TWh in 2014 (but in another dataset from 1965 to 2015, it increased its fossil fuel consumption by 25 % in that period).
• Slovakia reduced its consumption from 135 TWh to 123 TWh in 2014. 
• Switzerland reduced its dependence on fossil fuels from 154 to 153 TWh in 2014.

The former Soviet countries reduced even more in 28 years from 1988 to 2014 -  64 % for Ukraine, 39 % for Belarus and 24 % for Russia :

• Ukraine reduced its fossil fuel consumption by 64 % from 2590 TWh in 1988 to 920 TWh in 2014.
• Belarus reduced its consumption from 488 TWh in 1988 to 296 TWh in 2014, a decline of 39 %.
• Azerbaijan reduced their fossil fuel consumption from 248 in 1988 to 163 TWh in 2014, a decline of 34 %.
• Russia reduced its fossil fuel consumption from 9400 TWh in 1988 to 7100 TWh in 2014, a decline of 24 %.
• Kazakhastan reduced its fossil fuel consumption from 830 TWh in 1988 to 750 TWh in 2014, a decline of 10 %.

The European Union as a whole reduced its fossil fuel consumption from 14200 TWh in 1970 to 14000 TWh in 2014. 

The relative mix of coal, oil and gas in total consumption also varies by country. China, for example, sources more than 70 percent of fossil fuel consumption from coal. In contrast, Argentina sources less than two percent from coal, with gas accounting for nearly 60 percent.

We had better wake up to how deadly heat waves can be..

The world will face severe climate impacts even with 1.5 C degrees of warming, and the effects get significantly worse with 2 degrees. In a 2 C warmer world, nearly 40 % of the world's population will be exposed to severe heat atleast once every five years (in a 1.5 C warmer world, this percentage will be 14 %).

How quickly heat waves can kill, was brought home when 80,000 people died in Europe's 2003 heat wave. A majority of the deaths occured in August that year. During one shocking week that month, nearly a 100 % more people died in France than would have as per the regular death rate. 40 % extra people died in Portugal, Italy and Spain. Excess mortality exceeded 20% in Germany, Switzerland and Belgium and 10% in four other European countries.

That summer in some weeks, temperatures soared to 20–30 percent above average. Even nightly temperatures were higher than the average summer midday highs. The heat was particularly severe in France, where the temperature remained around 37 °C for more than a week in August in some areas.

The heat wave also affected the environment. Alpine glaciers shrank by 10 percent over the summer. Forest fires raged across western Europe. The heat affected harvests as well: fodder and grain production declined. In addition, high water temperatures and low water levels shut down French nuclear power facilities just when demand for electricity peaked.