AD industry ‘under threat’ from End of Waste
26 January 2012
The UK anaerobic digestion industry is under ‘major threat’ from proposed changes to the EU Waste Framework Directive, according to the Renewable Energy Association.
The changes, known as “End of Waste”, are currently being developed to define the point at which certain recovered materials cease to become a waste and can be classified as a product. Once finalised, they will replace the Quality Protocols already in place in the UK for materials such as compost and digestate.
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- The REA is concerned over the impact of the regulation changes on the UK AD sector
However, the REA says they could impose inappropriate and damaging procedures governing the use of digestate and says it is engaged in a dialogue with officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and AD operators to try to ensure that the UK industry’s concerns are represented in Brussels and ‘vital’ changes are made.
Anaerobic digestion (AD), which has received support from the Coalition Government, produces energy in the form of biogas and digestate which can be used as an organic fertiliser. The digestate can be classified as a product and spread on land if it meets the high standards set by the Biofertiliser Certification Scheme administered by the REA’s certification arm, REAL. Earlier this week, Lower Reule Bioenergy announced that it was one of the first UK companies to achieve certification under the scheme (see letsrecycle.com story) .
‘Wholly inappropriate’
The REA claims the new regulations would force BCS to align with its new and largely inappropriate criteria. It says the End of Waste proposals do not represent a more stringent set of regulations than the BCS criteria but are simply ‘wholly inappropriate’ in the UK context. In their current form they are aligned to German AD practice, which typically uses large percentages of energy crops as input, in contrast to the UK model where food waste is commonly 100% of the inputs.
The proposals for end of waste for biodegradable waste – covering both digestate and compost - were published by the EU’s Joint Research Centre's Institute for Prospective Technological Studies in October 2011.
There needs to be a full impact assessment to fully understand the potential impact on UK business
Gaynor Hartnell, REA
The REA produced a table in December 2011 highlighting the main proposed changes and how they differ from what is expected under the existing BCS scheme. This includes proposals for 15% minimum organic dry matter content of the final product, to align it with composting criteria, which the REA claims is ‘impossible to achieve with a food AD plant’.
Impact
The UK is the only member state to have developed its own End of Waste process, however, if the new proposals are not changed, much of the digestate UK AD produces would be reclassified under the End of Waste criteria not as “recycled product”, but as “waste”, which the REA says would greatly impact on both its commercial viability and on its ability to contribute towards local authority recycling targets, which is a major part of the technology’s appeal.
REA chief executive Gaynor Hartnell said:“Five years ago the REA recognised that for biogas to really take off in the UK, plant operators needed to get the digestate they produced recognised as a valuable fertiliser, rather than a problematic waste. We have the Biofertiliser Certification Scheme up and running, which does just that, and the first few plants are now getting their certificates.
“Their digestate is a seen as an environmentally friendly alternative to mineral fertiliser, having a lower carbon footprint and many other beneficial characteristics. Certified biogas plants can make a valuable contribution towards achieving local authorities’ recycling objectives. There needs to be a full impact assessment to fully understand the potential impact on UK business. We can’t have new rules imposed from Europe which would send us back to square one.”
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