Britain risks over-investing in waste infrastructure

Britain is at risk of heavily over-investing in residual waste treatment infrastructure, according to a new study by Eunomia Research and Consulting.

The Residual Waste Infrastructure Review claims that if all facilities that have been granted planning permission go ahead and if waste arisings remain flat then the country will have almost five million tonnes more capacity than it requires. And, it estimates that 1.2 million tonnes of surplus capacity could be in place by 2015.

The report models the quantity of residual waste generated, from household, commercial and industrial sources, against existing and forthcoming treatment infrastructure to determine where capacity gaps exist.

Capacity

It shows that Britain had residual waste arisings of over 28.3 million tonnes in 2011/12 and 14.8 million tonnes of residual waste treatment capacity either operating or under construction, leaving a capacity gap of 13.5 million tonnes.

But, if the 18.2 million tonnes of capacity that has planning consent reaches financial close and begins construction, and if waste arisings remain flat, then there would be over capacity of 4.7 million tonnes per annum.

Eunomia predicts that the situation is likely to be further aggravated as there is an additional four million tonnes of waste treatment capacity seeking planning permission. On top of this, Eunomias calculations show that Britains waste arisings are on track to be 1.5 million tonnes lower in 2020/21 than in 2009/10; however these depend critically upon what happens to the economy.

Commenting on the findings Dr Dominic Hogg, director of Eunomia, said: The waste treatment industry continues to tell us that the planning system is preventing us from achieving high-levels of landfill diversion. The facts however tell a different story. If all consented facilities are built, then well have far more residual waste treatment capacity than we need. In fact we risk ending up in the same position as is now being faced in Germany, where treatment costs are falling and so undermining the economics of recycling.

Treatment

The latest report is a bi-annual update following on from the first edition published in October 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story). The previous report showed that Britain could be in a position of over-capacity by 2020.

Eunomia holds information on every residual treatment facility in the country, including those in the planning system, and has data on their feedstocks, capacity and municipal contracts.

Britains current residual waste treatment capacity is made up of 32 dedicated incineration facilities, five gasification facilities, 29 pre-treatment facilities (using mechanical biological treatment or autoclave technologies), 11 waste incineration directive (WID) compliant biomass facilities and six cement kilns processing solid recovered fuels (SRF).

The report also offers insight into regional situations which shows the current capacity, breakdown of facilities, and capacity in the planning system.