Call for limit on mass-burn incineration

Global Renewables, which holds a £2 billion PFI contract with the Lancashire Waste Partnership (see letsrecycle.com story) said that, just because incineration is slightly cheaper than other technologies, it is not necessarily the right answer for managing waste which is a valuable resource – especially if governments in both England and Scotland are hoping to move towards a goal of “zero waste”.

The call came as it was revealed that Blackburn with Darwen council was considering energy from waste technology, after withdrawing from the Lancashire Waste Partnership's PFI deal, which centres around Global Renewables' MBT technology, in 2006 – although Global Renewables said this was not related.

Blackburn with Darwen is the latest in a long list of local authorities expressing an interest in the technology – a trend that has spurred governments in both Scotland and Wales to already consider capping the use of mass burn waste incineration.

Tony Adamson, head of business development at Global Renewables, told letsrecycle.com: “We would like to see the amount of incineration and landfill limited even more so the whole market is driven to even more reuse, recycling and composting.

“There is no doubt that, over the last years, intervention of government has driven local authorities and residents to recycle more. Government can be hugely influential in driving us down a certain path. The more they drive us away from incineration, the closer we will get to zero waste,” he added.

While one of the main criticisms of technologies such as MBT has been cost, Mr Adamson claimed that the price of new technologies was coming down, commenting: “Now MBT technologies are getting more mature, the price gap between incineration and MBT has closed significantly. Therefore councils should be looking at doing the right thing and not going for a slightly cheaper option.”

However, despite criticising mass-burn incineration, Global Renewables welcomed the development of energy from waste plants such as that proposed by INEOS Chlor at Runcorn in Cheshire, which are intended to burn fuel that has been produced through MBT and anaerobic digestion processes.

He said: “We have to be careful with some of the headlines about pure energy from waste. Ineos Chlor for example is not a pure mass burn plant as it is taking refuse derived fuel. We welcome the Ineos Chlor facility as they are showing that industry can be more imaginative in the way it can generate its heat and power and uses joined up thinking.”

Global Renewables is a subsidiary of Australian engineering and development firm GRD Ltd. It currently operates a waste treatment facility at Eastern Creek, Sydney, using its UR-3R mechanical biological treatment (MBT) technology, as well as building an MBT facility in Lancashire.

Outputs from the UR-3R process can be either an Organic Growth Media (OGM) – which can be used in brownfield site remediation or refuse-derived fuel, which can be used to generate electricity.