The report, Delivering the Landfill Directive: The role of new and emerging technologies, says that mass-burn incineration “represents the most state-of-the-art technology employed within the UK waste management sector.” But it stresses the difficulties that this sector and other new technologies may have because of claims by pressure groups. This is an important issue because the study finds that new technologies are available to deal with waste.
The study, by Associates in Industrial Ecology, points to recycling becoming a preferred option, partly through a polarisation of views. These views, says the report, are “seemingly fuelled by unproven health impact claims associated with other technologies by certain pressure group elements with their own specific agenda. As a result, generic information is often absent from discussions comparing technology types.”
Rhetoric
The report says that to achieve targets for the reduction of the landfilling of biodegradable municipal waste (MSW), “this bias and disingenuous rhetoric must make way for a more generic and objective approach to waste decision making.”
The study finds that non-technical barriers aside (with the exception of advanced thermal treatment and ethanol production) new and emerging technologies considered in the report are sufficiently commercially developed to enable delivery of the biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) targets under the Landfill Directive.
Technologies
Taking an individual look at the technologies, the study says that UK reference plants – both for source segregated household kitchen waste and their co-digestion with sewage sludge – are urgently required.
The report says that bio-mechanical treatment (BMT) involves proven technology from mainland Europe. “BMT plants will probably replace dirty material recycling facilities for processing residual MSW fractions, as the technology offers the additional benefits of bulk waste reduction and bio-stabilisation.
Landfill is described as remaining as the lowest cost option for managing MSW although fixed costs are increasing. Advanced thermal treatment is expected later in the decade.
2010 targets and beyond
From the data presented, says the report, “it appears likely that the first Landfill Directive BMW target date (assuming use is made of the first 4-year derogation) will be met by delivery of the 2010 Waste Strategy 2000recycling and composting target. It appears more questionable – particularly if the subsequent four-year derogations are not called upon – that the second and third Landfill Directive BMW targets could be met by recycling or composting alone, unless these were achieved at levels above those set in the National Waste Strategy.
“This indicates the importance of BMW focused recycling and composting activities by local authorities in the early years and the probable need for (advanced) thermal treatment. Delivery of Waste Strategy 2000 will necessitate a profound step change in infrastructure from 2015 onwards in meeting the increased overall recovery target of 67% (increased from 45% between 2010 and 2015.)”
For the report on technologies, see: SU report on technologies .
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