Dive Brief:
- Municipal solid waste (MSW) is expected to hit 1.5 billion tons this year, with projections for 2023 reaching 2.2 billion tons.
- As a result of these numbers, communities and companies alike have their eyes on minimizing consumption and recovery rates, and are re-thinking disposal options.
- Armed with this information, investment in smart waste technologies is expected to grow to $42 billion between today and 2023, predicts Navigant Research, a market research firm that specializes in clean tech markets.
Dive Insight:
A report issued by Navigant details the main components of emerging waste technologies as smarter collection practices, advanced processing methods for recovering commodities, innovative recovery techniques and efficient disposal and processing.
Currently, about 43% of the global MSW stream is processed using a facet of the smart MSW technology market somewhere in its chain of command- but that number has room to grow.
The report suggests that “Even in mature waste management markets like North America and Western Europe, opportunities abound for commercializing emerging technologies and extending investments across the entire waste management value chain.”
