OPINION: When ETS was introduced in 2021, EfW facilities were seen as a more sustainable alternative to landfill, and there were concerns that including EfW in the ETS could disincentivise waste diversion efforts.
However, the landscape is changing, and the UK government has decided to follow suit with the EU and include emissions from EfW facilities in the ETS from 2028 onwards. The aim is to create a financial incentive for EfW operators to operate in a more carbon-neutral way.
This move is likely to have a significant impact on the sector. From 2028, EfW operators will be required to monitor, report and verify their output of greenhouse gases. The government will issue a limited number of carbon emission allowances each year which operators will purchase, effectively buying the right to emit a specific amount of CO2. EfW operators will be required to pay for their carbon emissions through a system of allowances and carbon pricing, ensuring they purchase sufficient allowances to cover their fossil CO2 emissions.
Until the scheme is finalised, it’s difficult to predict exact allowance prices as these will be market driven, but in anticipation of its introduction, some UK EfW operators may now be considering investing in carbon capture and storage (CCS) to reduce their emissions. However, CCS is still in its early stages of development, and it poses significant challenges, including, among others, the requirement for significant energy and infrastructure investment, the lack of storage areas for the captured CO2 and concerns about the long-term security of storing CO2 underground.
With just four years until EfW will become part of the ETS, we are more likely to see a shift towards waste stream management and, in particular, the recovery of valuable plastics from RDF prior to incineration at EfW plants as plastics is a major contributor to a plant’s fossil CO2 emissions.
Over the next few years, some EfW operators may demand that their RDF suppliers supply a ‘cleaner, lower carbon’ RDF infeed where the plastics has already been removed, whereas others may decide to invest in a MRF at the front end of their EfW plant so they can recover the plastics themselves.
Either way, the environmental, economic and operational benefits of recovering plastics from RDF pre-incineration are manifold and include reducing the reliance on virgin plastics; lowering greenhouse gas emissions; diverting waste from incineration; creating new recycling streams with the recovered plastics and reducing waste disposal costs.
The good news is that the technology to recover plastics from RDF already exists and is achieving great results for Tomra’s customers throughout Europe and beyond, including ROAF in Norway, SÖRAB Exergi in Sweden and AVR in the Netherlands.
Tomra uses a combination of advanced, automated sensor-based sorting and air stabilisation techniques to identify and separate different types of plastic polymers from the mixed RDF stream based on their unique spectral signatures. With high-throughput, multifunctional sorting capability, the technology is capable of effectively recovering recyclable plastics (PET, HDPE, LPDE and more) from RDF, regardless of whether they are contaminated or not. Tomra’s sorting systems are designed for high-capacity operation so they can efficiently handle large volumes of RDF to maximise plastic recovery rates within EfW facilities.
Capturing the plastics will not only significantly reduce the CO2 emissions associated with the RDF material, but will also reduce the overall waste disposal costs for EfW facilities by diverting recyclables from incineration. It will also reduce the amount of money operators have to spend purchasing carbon emission allowances from 2028. Furthermore, it will create new revenue streams for operators as the recovered materials can be sold to meet the rising global market demand for recycled plastics. And, with the plastics taken out of the infeed RDF material, incineration capacities at UK EfW plants will increase which will help to address growing waste volumes in the UK.
The inclusion of EfW plants in the ETS is a complex issue, but overall has the potential to drive positive change in the waste management sector. What’s key is that it incentivises cleaner EfW operations and prioritises waste diversion over incineration. There is no doubt that the recovery of plastics from RDF aligns with the growing focus on the circular economy and contributes to a more sustainable waste management approach for EfW plants.
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