Lee Marshall, FCIWM Director of Innovation and Technical Services
I am sure most of you will have seen the recent BBC report into Energy from Waste (EfW) and the stir that it caused in national, local and trade press. CIWM, along with trade bodies across the sector issued their views on the stories, although these themselves caused consternation and comment from within the sector.
So, are we in the sector biased or just well informed? Maybe we are biased because we are well informed? Either way it generally felt that as a sector we got a bit of kicking – for trying to deal as responsibly as possible with the waste that everyone generates. I do still find it interesting that our sector can be held up as the problem rather than the solution, which is what we really are.
EfW capacity is an ongoing issue though and maybe it is time for the sort of national review that was undertaken in Scotland. If we assume that EPR and simpler recycling/consistent collections are implemented (lets save DRS for another day!) and we have ETS coming in and likely a biodegradable landfill ban, then the types of waste produced and where they need to go will need to alter. That in turns means the types of facilities and their locations are also likely to have to pivot.
I have been in the sector for 30 years. When I joined there were still dilute and disperse landfill sites and recycling rates were in the low single figures. When you get stories like this from the BBC it is easy to forget how far the sector has come. Our greenhouse gas emissions have reduced by 46% in that time, and we have recycling rates in some councils up around 65%. I have been in the same sector for those 30 years and today it looks nothing like the sector I joined. We are constantly changing, evolving and adapting to solve the problems that society, design and policy place in front of us.
That doesn’t mean as a sector we think the job is done though and that is why you see the innovation and improvements that are coming through all the time. Are there aspects that could move faster? Yes probably. Does that mean we are doing a bad job? Well no.
With ETS coming down the line we could be at the beginning of the next big shift in treatment technology. The landfill tax helped with the move to EfW and it could be ETS is the policy lever that prompts a move away from EfW. To what I am not sure is clear yet but we have the first carbon capture plant being tested in the UK so that might show the direction of travel for our sector.
CIWM is currently doing some research into the ETS policy and how it interacts and overlaps with other policy areas. In drafting our response to the recent ETS consultation it became clear that there are still many unanswered questions of how ETS will be applied to our sector. It also starts to beg the question is ETS the right policy instrument for decarbonising EfW feedstock? In theory the increased recycling that EPR and consistency should bring will do a lot of the heavy lifting in that regard, at least in terms of plastic. So, it will be interesting to see what the research comes back with and what recommendations it may or may not provide.
In the meantime CIWM continue to work hard for our members and our sector and try to inform and educate people about what we do. This has included a recent meeting with the new Minister, Mary Creagh, where various aspects of our work was covered. The mood coming from the government so far has been positive although we are probably at the point now where we need some announcements that allow us to get on with delivering policy changes on area such as carriers, brokers and dealers reform and digital waste tracking. Hopefully these will come soon (pun intended). 2025 is shaping up to be an interesting year, the only caveat I guess is we have probably been saying that for the past four years or so.