1885

The City of Amsterdam creates landfills for the collection of waste. These prove to be inconvenient for the city’s residents. After some time, the City decides to burn the waste in the open air.

1917

The first waste incinerators are installed in a northern borough of Amsterdam. These have a throughput of 150,000 tonnes of waste per year. A furnace is used for incineration, and the steam produced is supplied to an adjacent power plant for generating electricity. The plant does not have a flue-gas cleaning system.

1969

The second generation of power-generating waste incinerators is introduced in Amsterdam. The plant can process 500,000 tonnes of waste per year. The dust from flue-gas is captured.

1993

The third generation of incinerators is developed in a western borough of Amsterdam. This facility has a capacity of 850,000 tonnes of waste per year. It is equipped with an extensive flue-gas cleaning system that keeps emissions within legal limits. This Waste-to-Energy Plant is among the seven largest and most advanced in the world. 2007 The design of the fourth-generation Waste-to-Energy Plant proves to be truly revolutionary. AEB’s highly efficient Waste Fired Power Plant (WFPP) is able to totally reuse energy and materials. It produces electricity with 30% efficiency, and has a processing capacity of 530,000 tonnes per year. This makes it the largest and most efficient waste-to-energy facility in the world. AEB’s total annual processing capacity rises to 1.4 million tonnes.