The Growing EU Need for Waste-to-Energy Plant Refurbishments

On March 4-5, 2026, I attended the Energy from Waste Conference in London, England. The goal of the conference was to “accelerate decarbonization and circular economy, across waste to energy, waste to value, and waste to X."  

I was invited to join a panel on strategies for aging waste to energy plants to share insights from a report published in June 2025 by SWANA’s Applied Research Foundation (ARF).  

My session at the conference featured a presentation by Diana Tomazio of Valor Sul on the company’s efforts to refurbish their Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plant in Lisbon, Portugal, which is about 27 years old. In contrast, the average age of US WTE facilities is 36 years old. The major benefit to keeping the plant operating is to conserve landfill capacity in Portugal. Currently, the country is still landfilling about 60% of its waste.  

During my remarks, I pointed out the significantly lower costs of refurbishing a plant rather than replacing it and that by planning for refurbishment at the outset, the costs of WTE over a 40- to 50-year timeframe can be competitive with landfill disposal. The conference attendees appreciated such findings learned through the ARF research efforts.  

One key takeaway I found at the conference is that there is a huge opportunity for SWANA members and consulting firms with experience in rehabbing WTE plants in the US to lead the charge with their expertise as the need grows for plant refurbishments across Europe. 

All ARF reports are available complimentary to SWANA members and can be purchased by all others seeking to learn from real-world, practitioner-based research. Not a member? I invite you to join SWANA as a member to access more than 60 ARF reports and benefit from other member-exclusive resources and opportunities.