The Energy from Waste Debate
SOURCE: CIWM, APRIL 2008
With the EU currently debating its proposed new climate and energy package, how well do current EU and UK policies on energy dovetail with those on waste?
The most obvious interface between waste and energy is “energy from waste”, a concept second only to disposal at the bottom of the waste hierarchy.
It generally connotes the incineration of waste materials to generate electricity. But what about fuel products that are derived from waste? These are not “energy from waste” but rather fully recovered products in their own right, and an example of exactly the type of high-value products that EU waste policy should encourage – reducing reliance on natural resources while dealing with tricky waste streams.
In terms of renewable energy incentives, it’s odd that, under the Renewables Obligation (RO), waste-derived fuel products are still treated as waste – despite their product status in terms of the WFD. This means that under the RO, fully recovered waste-derived fuel oils are placed on a par with untreated waste oil, earning operators only as many ROCs as if they had never been treated at all.
This seems to conflict with the waste hierarchy’s aims of encouraging recovery and recycling over energy from waste.
Once we have joined-up policy measures for dealing with waste, energy and climate change, with subsidy linked to the waste hierarchy, the EU and UK can really boast their environmental policy credentials.
AUTHOR: VINCENT BROWN
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