WASTE, A MATTER OF ENERGY. A DIACHRONIC ANALYSIS (1992-2017) OF WASTE-TO-ENERGY RATIONALES

International audienceCommonly referred to as waste-to-energy, the utilisation of energy generated by waste treatment processes is meeting unprecedented interest in terms of the amount of energy recovered and the diverse ways of doing it. Although incineration remains the most widespread waste-to-energy technology, 1 other solutions are diverse and becoming more common. Climate and energy policies, set at European and national levels, have contributed to the adoption of energy recovery as an alternative to fossil fuels. Waste-to-energy policies have been strengthened, by means of a combination of legal frameworks, public support and incentives, to the extent that waste management can be considered to be partly driven by climate and energy concerns. Since it seems that the public policies governing waste management are increasingly being determined by energy matters, this chapter aims to test the hypothesis the energy shaping of waste. If waste-to-energy now falls under the jurisdictions of both waste management and energy, it will be necessary to identify when and where the convergence of these two agendas originates, as well as the very framing processes they rely on. This chapter focuses on energy-from-waste at the policymaking level in Europe and its implementation in France, in order to grasp how, in these contexts, waste has become an energy issue. Based on an analysis of the last three decades, it aims to investigate to what extent and by what means energy recovery from waste has been conducted and debated