Animal by-products compost concerns will be met – DEFRA

Elliot Morley MP, parliamentary under-secretary for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said the government would reflect “most of the concerns” voiced during a recent consultation with composters in the Statutory Instrument which will enforce the regulation.

Themes

The consultation was held so the composting industry could respond to DEFRA's proposals for implementing the regulation with regard to composting catering waste. Mr Morley said four “common themes” had emerged from views submitted. These were:

• The proposals were too prescriptive and would severely restrict the development of the composting industry, preventing the UK from meeting its landfill and recycling targets.
• The costs of proposed laboratory testing requirements would be too high.
• The standards should not be applied to mechanical and biological treatment plants when composting is used to stabilise organic matter of material destined for landfill.
• The length of the proposed ban on grazing following the application of compost or digestate to land did not fit in with farming practice.

“We have been able to meet most of the concerns expressed on these issues and have amended our draft implementing Statutory Instrument accordingly,” Mr Morley said.

The Regulation sets a treatment standard of 70 degrees C for one hour for treatment of animal by-products, but for catering waste, individual countries are allowed to set more stringent standards.

Ban

The UK government intends to lift the ban on composting catering waste which was imposed in 2001 after the Foot and Mouth outbreak. But, unlike other European countries, it had proposed to enforce strict conditions on composting when involving catering rather than green waste.

In January 2003, the Composting Association summed up the feelings of the industry when it described the government's proposals for implementation as “confusing, vague and overly prescriptive”. This view was submitted with supporting evidence to DEFRA's consultation.

And waste management firm Cory Environmental told the consultation that the proposals could stop the UK meeting Landfill Directive targets.

The Regulation came into effect across the European Union on May 1, 2003, but the UK's Statutory Instrument is not expected to be brought in until the end of May in England and later in Scotland and Wales because of elections. In the meantime, the enforcement provisions within the Animal By-Products Order (1999) will remain in force.