Addressing this year's CIWM Conference and Exhibition on the new English waste strategy, Neil Thornton, a senior official from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, recognised the need for “fundamental investment” in waste treatment infrastructure including energy-from-waste plants to hit landfill diversion targets.
Energy recovery from residual waste is absolutely part of the story, that people have been underselling and I accept that has happened in the past. But Ben Bradshaw has since the moment he got involved raised the profile of the energy-from-waste debate
Neil Thornton, Defra
He attempted to reassure those “nervous” about new incinerators being built across the country that it will not threaten recycling and re-use, saying “it will not be a problem”.
However, discussing the government's view of energy-from-waste in the light of the strategy, Mr Thornton said: “Energy recovery from residual waste is absolutely part of the story, that people have been underselling and I accept that has happened in the past. But Ben Bradshaw has since the moment he got involved raised the profile of the energy-from-waste debate.”
Referring to residual waste, the material left over in the waste stream once recyclable materials have been taken out, he said: “It will either have to go down the MBT (mechanical biological treatment) route or the incineration route.”
The Private Finance Initiative guidance had been amended to require major projects to clearly consider the markets where residual material from processes like MBT would go, he added.
Mr Thornton also explained that the reason the new waste strategy had discussed new waste treatment technologies more than straightforward incineration was because “black bag incineration does not need support because we all know how it works.”
Strategy
Mr Thornton, director of sustainable development, consumption and production at Defra, said an implementation plan was being drawn up to put into motion the “93 things that we promised to do” within the new English waste strategy.
He spoke of the importance of new targets on both municipal and non-municipal waste, and noted that there was some debate over whether those in the strategy are sufficiently challenging, revealing that environment minister Ben Bradshaw had been “pressing the possibility of even more ambitious targets.”
Mr Thornton stressed the major role that the Landfill Tax and the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme would play in diverting material from landfill, although he noted that the strategy itself had not given much space to the measures, since they were already ingrained in the waste management chain.
He said the consultation on household incentives for recycling, which ends this August, could lead to schemes that would result in a 15% reduction in landfill.
Life cycle thinking
The Defra director also discussed the life cycle thinking on materials that would influence the government's implementation of its new waste strategy, particularly in adopting the new carbon focus for the road ahead.
He said: “A large part of the strategy is about putting new thinking in place on materials and the carbon implications of various materials and products. So for example, weight-for-weight, aluminium cans are important – but in terms of the overall total carbon, it's food waste.”
Roy Hathaway would lead this new life cycle thinking work within Defra, he revealed, which would fit into other government policy on sustainable development including the design of products to be recyclable.
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