The rationale for taking a fresh policy approach to the development of new landfill capacity was outlined at the RWM show this week by two Biffa authors, following publication of its Reality Gap report.
The report writers, Jeff Rhodes, head of environment and external affairs, and Mike Thair, group business development director spoke at a breakfast briefing yesterday (13 September), outlining the highlights of their report.
l-r Jeff Rhodes, head of environment and external affairs and Mike Thair, group business development director
Landfill
Mr Rhodes emphasised to the audience that 70% of what is going into landfill at present is not recyclable, consisting of materials such as soils and sludges – showing the importance of landfill in the capacity provision it provides.
And, Mr Rhodes also contrasted the position of energy from waste and recycling in comparison to landfill: “With the case of energy from waste and recycling, you are in the situation of not having enough. With landfill you are in the position of having quite a lot of capacity at the moment but you’re getting less.”
Future waste trends
Looking at future waste trends, Mr Rhodes said that further recycling gains will become more difficult. But, he criticised those who claimed that Britain was ‘the dirty man of Europe’, saying that the UK is in the top ten of recycling and has had some of the fastest growth in recycling rates.
He explained that the UK’s static recycling rate could well be because the government had chosen the most “difficult definition” of recycling under EU options and that if incinerator bottom ash (IBA) was to be included the rate could be taken up to 50%. “My guess is that if they had to do that, it is what they would do.”
Mike Thair looked at project development and noted that as many as 130 new projects for waste treatment (primarily energy from waste) are proposed and he questioned how many would actually be built.
Capacity
The Biffa study noted that an estimated 2 million tonnes of additional capacity could be built, 1.8 m tonnes of traditional energy from waste and 0.2 m tonnes of advanced thermal treatment (ATT). But, only 12.8% of those might be built, suggested Mr Thair, adding that subsidies were an issue for the projects and that the “ATT subsidy bubble has burst. For us ATT, unless it is for a specialist waste or for a specific location, is not going to form a large part of the infrastructure in the UK”.
Biffa’s report: The Reality Gap 2017
The capacity gap is currently served by landfill, said Mr Blair. “Landfill is sitting there and looking at the chart, if you flipped it around, it is supporting all those other processes, such as when energy from waste has periods of planned maintenance.”
And, he argued that England “is really facing a problem of landfill shortage. Defra and also the devolved governments are now waking up to this. For me this is an inconceivable scenario where we wake up and don’t have any landfill.”
Landfill materials are now inerts and non combustible materials and specialty wastes, he explained, taking up Mr Rhodes’ earlier point that much of landfill material cannot be recycled.
Agenda
Despite the reduction in landfill and its future role, Mr Thair said that it has “not been on the agenda. For a planning authority when you are judged on technical and needs, the landfill case should be compelling. We are actively looking at ways to get the most out of the landfills we have and we are looking at mothballed sites and the potential for new ones.”
In terms of the current interest in the sector from Defra, Mr Rhodes said that he felt that there is a definite change of approach on consultation and discussion with government at the moment, and that Biffa “was in the thick of it.” He reasoned that the last waste strategy was in 2011 and since then Defra had lost a lot of staff and now there was a flurry of activity as the UK prepared itself for Brexit and the need for new policies.
The report on which the presentations were based was first published earlier this month (see letsrecycle.com story).
To view the report, visit: The Reality Gap
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Source: letsrecycle.com General
