Assessing the environmental performances of waste-to-energy plants: The case-study of the EMAS-registered waste incinerators in Italy.

This study evaluated the environmental performances of 15 Italian waste incineration (WI) plants registered to EMAS. From the EMAS Environmental Statements, the validated data related to 5 environmental aspects (emissions to air, energy consumption/production, waste production and reagent consumption) and 24 key indicators were analyzed to describe and assess the environmental performances of the plants in 2017-2019 in relation to the best available techniques associated emission levels (BAT-AELs) and other sectorial reference values. All air pollutants' average concentrations resulted significantly below the upper BAT-AELs, the majority under the lower BAT-AELs, with an overall slightly decreasing trend (-4.