DEFRA clarifies Animal By-Products rules

Under the regulation, all animal by-products (ABPs – any parts of an animal that are not eaten by humans) will be banned from going to landfill, DEFRA's head of BSE division, Sue Bolton, explained yesterday. She was speaking to waste producers and the waste industry at a conference in London on the Animal By-Products Regulation organised by the Environmental Services Association.

Ms Bolton explained that there are three categories of ABP. Category one is high risk material such as BSE suspect meat, which must be incinerated. Category two is also high risk, condemned meat – this must be incinerated, or can be used in fertilisers after treatment.

Category three includes all other ABPs and is low risk. This must now be processed before landfill, incinerated, rendered, or can be used in composting or biogas treatments.

Treatment

There are three main types of category three waste which are affected by the regulation:

• Waste from butchers' shops and raw meat from the food manufacturing process. The disposal of this material is already tightly controlled – it must be rendered or incinerated.
• &#39Ca;tering waste' – food waste which has been prepared on the premises of a business for immediate consumption. This can continue to be landfilled.

• Waste food from a business which has not prepared it on the premises, and waste cooked meat from the food manufacturing process. This will not be allowed to go to landfill, affecting retailers such as supermarkets and garage shops. However, DEFRA has secured a 'transitional period' until December 2005 during which this can still be landfilled to allow businesses to comply with the regulations.

Composting and biogas

Catering waste can be processed in composting or biogas plants, with certain strict controls. The approved conditions are:

• Heating to 57 degrees for 5 hours at a particle size of 5cm (biogas); OR
• Heating to 60 degrees for 2 days at a particle size of 40cm (compost); OR
• Heating to 70 degrees for one hour at a particle size of 6cm (compost or biogas);

PLUS

• Storage for 18 days; OR
• Ensuring meat has been excluded from the catering waste before it is collected (source separation).

Confusion

However, some delegates said they were still confused over the new regulations and how to implement them in practice. In reaction to concerns from the composting industry on how to safely invest in specialist enclosed facilities, Ms Bolton admitted that DEFRA could not issue approval for a site until it was seen to be operating in practice.

One delegate commented on the “remarkable split in responsibilities” involved in regulation of composting sites. This will involve the State Veterinary Service issuing permits for site, but local authority Trading Standards officers doing the day-to-day regulation.

And speaker Simon Rutledge of Biffa spoke of the difficulties faced by operators in trying to enforce the legislation. “We have always found it extremely difficult to police this legislation because a raw pork chop from a retail business is not included in catering waste and should not go to landfill but a pork chop from a domestic kitchen can go to landfill,” he said.

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