Rules governing the treatment of waste animal-by products across Europe have been relaxed in a move which retailers claim will save them millions of pounds a year.
The European Council and Parliament agreed changes to the implementing rules for a revised version of the Animal By-Product Regulation (ABPR) earlier this month (October 12). This means that cooked items such as sausage rolls or sandwich ham will no longer have to be treated using anaerobic digestion, in-vessel composting or incineration, as the regulation previously required.
Alongside this, stores producing less than 20 kilograms of animal by-product waste such as raw meat and fish will also now be able to dispose of it alongside their normal waste, rather than sending it for specialist ABPR-compliant disposal.
Commenting on the significance of the changes, the BRC's food policy adviser, Sally Barber, said: “This is a sensible decision. The risk to animal and human health posed by waste Animal By-Products is extremely small.
“There was no real reason why retailers were prevented from dealing with small quantities of these products in the same was as households or catering businesses,” she added.
The BRC claims that, by freeing retailers from the cost of arranging ABPR-compliant disposal for small amounts of material, the change will save national chains of small stores up to £4 million a year each, and save the retail sector as a whole tens of millions of pounds.
Landfill
The trade body stressed that, despite the change allowing more material to be landfilled as non-ABPR compliant material, it believed the quantity of waste which would be disposed of in this way was not large enough to damage the retail sector's achievement in halving the amount of waste it landfills over the past five years.
And, Ms Barker added: “In the current tough trading environment the savings created by this change in regulation are most welcome. We're pleased Defra has listened to our arguments and done the right thing for British retailers.”
A spokeswoman for the BRC noted that, while the European agreement had set the framework for the revised ABPR, the actual implementation of the legislation in the UK would be decided by Defra.
But she stressed that this would involve discussion between the retail sector and government.
The revised ABPR was originally adopted by the European Parliament in April 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).
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