Glossary

Market capitalisation
The value of a company at market prices at a given time. This value is equal to the number of shares which make up the company’s capital multiplied by the share price.
Material recovery
Waste processing technique, allowing reemployment, reuse and recycling (eg : waste resulting from selective collection which is recycled, bottom ash recovered for use in toadway capping layers).
Medical waste
Waste resulting from medical activity, including hospital waste.
Membrane
A more or less porous selective barrier used to separate the various components of a liquid.
Membrane filtration
Membrane filtration uses the reverse osmosis process to retain the salts contained in water. Salt water enters one end of the membrane system at a pressure of 80 bar, passes through the membrane, and leaves the other end stripped of 99% of the salt. Reverse osmosis, often associated with an electricity production plant, has become particularly competitive on the desalination market since it enables a major decrease in the price per cubic meter of processed water.
Methanisation
Methanisation is based on the recovery of gas produced by the degradation of organic matter buried in landfills, a form of biological fermentation caused by bacterial flora. It facilitates the recovery of a gas that otherwise would simply escape into the atmosphere. It also reduces the proportion of final waste in landfills and improves control of the pollution and environmental nuisance caused by the treatment of household waste. Once recovered, biogas can be used to produce electricity or heat, or be used as a clean fuel.