Waste recycling

Material and energy recovery from organic waste makes an important contribution to climate protection and to the conservation of resources in Switzerland.

Organic waste also plays an important role as the raw material for high-value products and for energy sources. This includes, for instance, compost, digestate, biogas or biodiesel. Wood waste is the most important for energy production. Heat and sometimes also electricity are produced when it is burned.

From 1985 until 2014 the amount of separately collected and recycled organic waste rose sharply. While in 1985 around 200,000 tonnes were recovered for material and energy purposes, in 2013 this figure rose to over 1.2 million tonnes. The largest quantity in terms of material recovery comes from the fermentation of organic waste. During this process some energy is also recovered. Almost half of the recovered organic waste comes from the local authority collection services. The amounts recovered from gardens and from industry were considerably smaller. This was shown in the study published by the FOEN «Organic commodity flows in Switzerland 2006» as well as in follow-up investigations. The FOEN studies also showed that the increased use of organic waste for the production of biogas is based only partly on the costs of composting, which has also shown increased growth.

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Last modification 27.06.2019

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