The Limmat Valley’s incinerator handled fewer tonnes in 2025 than the year before, yet delivered more energy than in any year of its history. The explanation is not in the furnaces.
Key Takeaways
- Limeco treated c. 92,000 tonnes of waste in 2025, roughly 2,650 tonnes fewer than in 2024.
- Despite lower volumes, the plant delivered record energy output in heat, cooling and steam.
- Its efficiency ratio rose for the fifth consecutive year, near the top of the Swiss ranking.
- Electricity output fell by a tenth; both furnace lines stood still for a week during a major overhaul.
- The cost of treating a tonne of waste rose by almost a third.
Limeco, the utility owned by eight municipalities west of Zurich, treated close to 92,000 tonnes of waste at its Dietikon plant in 2025, roughly 2,650 tonnes less than in 2024. Deliveries from the open market fell, municipal volumes did not.
That would normally mean less energy. Instead the plant coupled out more heat, cooling and steam than ever before, and its efficiency ratio moved up for the fifth year running, to a level that puts it near the top of the Swiss ranking.
A Week With Both Furnaces at a Standstill
The year had a second side. Electricity output dropped by a tenth, one furnace line lost more than five per cent of its availability, and for one week in autumn both lines were shut down at the same time while 188 external specialists worked on the site. Two unplanned stoppages added to the downtime. The cost of treating a tonne of waste rose by almost a third.
What lifted the energy figures, what the overhaul involved, and what all this means for the plant’s planned successor: read all the details on Limeco’s 2025 financial year in our new company profile.
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