United States Waste to Energy Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2020 - 2025)

The US waste to energy market is expected to register a CAGR of about 7.26% during the forecast period of 2020-2025. The advancements and penetration of the WTE technologies in North America have still not resonated with the pace at which the waste gets generated in the region. The country's decreasing availability of landfill space is creating a shift toward the development of renewable energy, which provides the market with immense potential for growth in the near future. The United States has been one of the countries worldwide at the forefront of adopting WTE technologies mainly because of the introduction of many favorable government initiatives. However, the country still lacks suitable policies and regulations concerning WTE, and factors such as high capital investment, increasing the recycling rate of waste and several other factors that have been restraining the growth in the WTE market.

• Thermal-based waste to energy technology is expected to dominate the market, owing to the number of incineration plants in the country.
• Technological advancements in the waste to energy sector is expected to create a significant amount of opportunities for the plant operators in the near future.
• Municipalities in the state have moved toward both public and private companies to meet the constraints related to budgets and increase efficiency for managing the WTE technologies.

Key Market Trends

Thermal Based Waste to Energy Conversion to Dominate the Market

As of 2019, thermal technology is expected to account for the highest market share in the global waste-to-energy market. This trend of dominance by the thermal division is expected to continue in the coming years owing to the increasing developments in the technologies of incineration and gasification.

• It is estimated that plants, which utilize cogeneration of thermal power (heating and cooling), together with electricity generation can reach optimum efficiencies of 80%.
• In the present scenario, incineration is the most well-known waste-to-energy technology for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) processing, which dominates the thermal-based WTE market.
• However, waste-to-energy technologies, particularly incineration, produce pollution and carry potential health safety risks.
• In order to reduce particulate and gas-phase emissions, the owners of incineration plants have adopted a series of process units for cleaning the flue gas stream, which has, in turn, led to a significant improvement in terms of environmental sustainability.

Increasing Recycling Rate of Waste in the United States to Restrain the Growth of the Market

The total generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2017 was 267.8 million tons. Of the MSW generated, about 67 million tons were recycled, and 27 million tons were composted.

• Together, more than 94 million tons of MSW were recycled and composted, equivalent to a 35.2% recycling and composting rate.
• In 2019, 68 power plants in the United States generated about 14.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from burning 31.5 million tons of combustible MSW. Biomass materials accounted for about 64% of the weight of the combustible MSW and for about 51% of the electricity generated.
• The new government policies are aimed at restricting high carbon emissions. This factor is hindering the growth of the incineration process.
• In addition, the increase in recycling of municipal solid waste to 60% by 2035, is expected to affect the market for incineration as well.

Competitive Landscape

The US waste to energy market is moderately fragmented. Some of the key players are Covanta Holding Corp, Waste Management, Inc., Suez SA, Martin GmbH, and Wheelabrator Technologies Inc.

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