Refuse Derived Fuel: Legal Framework, Current Situation in Europe and Turkiye

In parallel with the rapidly increasing industrialization, increasing amount and volume of solid wastes cause environmental problems. The disposal facilities are inadequate, when the landfilling is applied as a disposal method. In order to reduce the amount of waste that will go to landfill, the member states of the European Union have set targets to increase reduction, recovery and reuse. Recently, due to the insufficiency of energy resources and increasing costs of fossil fuels, waste disposal methods providing energy recovery have gained importance. Disposal of wastes having thermal value as fuel in cement plants is widely applied in developed countries. In this way, the amount of waste to be sent to the landfill is reduced, and an alternative fuel is obtained which can be used as energy source from the wastes with energy potential. In this study, the concept of waste-derived fuel (ATY) has been explained and the legal regulations related to ATY in Europe and in our country have been investigated, the waste potential of our country has been examined and the effects of ATY on the environment and the most important application area of the cement sector have been tried to be revealed