Greg Shapiro Comedy Keynote at EU Conference on Waste-to-Energy Plants
(from the CEWEP Conference on 5 June, 2025)
I don’t know if “Waste-to-Energy” plants are the solution to carbon emissions worldwide, but I’m here to tell you – their operators make a pretty good case. I was hired by the Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants to give a Comedy Keynote at their Annual General Meeting, and mostly I was inspired.
Photos: Jacek Koslicki for CEWEP
Here are 3 things that inspired me:
1) Minimal Emissions
I know in Amsterdam we have a “Waste-to-Energy plant,” which is basically a garbage incinerator with a turbine in the chimney to make electricity. But I know it’s partly the reason Amsterdam was able to finally get rid of its coal-burning power plant in 2019. And no, these things aren’t perfect, but they’re getting cleaner and more efficient all the time. They’ve become so good at removing emissions that the city of Copenhagen put a waste to energy facility right in the middle of their city. Architects even put a skiing hill on top of it, and now it’s a tourist destination. https://www.ramboll.com/projects/energy/state-of-the-art-waste-to-energy-facility-in-copenhagen
2) CCS Carbon Capture & Storage
For years, I’ve heard about how CCS is possible… maybe profitable? In Norway, in Sweden, in Italy, they’re doing it. 10-15 years ago they faced a decision: do we invest all this money in a technology that will take so long to pay off? Well, they did. And now their systems are online. The CO2 emissions from power plants are being captured and pumped down under the Baltic Sea, under the Adriatic Sea. Now they’re swamped with requests for their offset credits. https://ccsnorway.com/
Next up is CCU: Carbon Capture & Usage. More & more industrial processes realize they need carbon gas and cheap. The next time you order a beer, the carbonization might have come from a Waste-to-Energy plant.
3) Heat Networks & Conflict Minerals
The new Waste-to-Energy plants are also capturing the residual heat to add to city heating networks. And they even sift through the bottom ash to recycle precious metals and conflict minerals.
And anything is better than the alternative, landfill. Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers gave a talk about Europe’s sentinel satellites, mapping the biggest leaks of methane on the planet. One of the biggest anywhere is not Big Oil, not Mining. It’s a landfill outside of Madrid.
My mission: to give a PowerPoint parody. This is when I get everyone’s PowerPoint slides in advance, write some jokes. Then I sit through the day of presentations and write more jokes. And at the end of the day, I give a parody version of the day’s PowerPoint presentations. On a day like this, my job is just revisiting the most memorable moments. Then adding humor to make the truly worthy presentations even more unforgettable.
CEWEP’s Fabio Poretti reviewed my contribution:
“Thanks for your contribution in Gdansk. It was fun and, as every good comedy speech, also reflective. You were indeed able to wisely catch and distillate all the main elements touched during the day, even the very technical ones! It was a great way to close an intense conference day with a totally alternative and creative communication cut.”
Greg Shapiro Keynote Speaker:
https://gregshapiro.nl/blog/greg-shapiro-keynote-demo/