Ethiopia’s Reppie waste-to-energy plant burns rubbish and powers homes

A new waste-to-energy plant, founded in 2018 in Ethiopia, is now burning 80% of Addis Ababa’s garbage, generating electricity to power 30% of the city’s homes, and creating hundreds of jobs, this World Economic Forum video shows (watch, runtime: 04:04). The Reppie plant takes almost 500 mn kgs of garbage per year, keeps it in a bunker for five days to allow moisture to seep out, and then burns it at 1000 degrees, turning the rubbish to electricity. With landfill sites generating some 10% of the world’s methane — a gas 25 times more potent than CO2 — this initiative is a relatively environmentally friendly way of treating waste. While it is not as effective as reducing waste, it is still an important step for energy production, says Samuel Alemayehu, global MD at Cambridge Industries, who hopes to roll the design out to different African cities.