Eunomia’s eighth Residual Waste Infrastructure Review, published yesterday (June 23), suggests that facilities currently operational, in construction or expected to be operational by 2019/20 will be collectively capable of processing 23.9 million tonnes of waste per year.
This, the consultancy claims, will exceed the 21.6 million tonnes of residual waste it has calculated will be produced in the year.
The report draws upon data from local authorities’ annual WasteDataFlow returns, Defra’s latest C&I data and Eunomia’s in-house Facilities Database, which holds information on residual treatment facilities (both operating and under development).
Data is analysed on both a national and regional basis, Eunomia says, to provide a detailed picture of where insufficient or excess capacity is anticipated.
Opposition
The claim continues to put Eunomia firmly at odds with the belief held by the waste industry, with firms including Veolia and SITA UK all claiming that the UK is on course for a treatment shortfall within the next decade.
The government-backed Green Investment Bank (GIB) has also raised concerns over the potential for a residual waste treatment infrastructure shortfall, stating that an extra £5 billion may need to be pumped into projects to bridge the treatment gap.
Elsewhere, the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT), a senior local authority officers’ organisation, has also warned of a potential to miss landfill diversion targets, if further infrastructure investment is not found.
But, according to Eunomia, investors may need to ‘exercise more caution’ in their expectations for the availability of feedstock for residual waste treatment plants including incinerators, mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plants and gasifiers.”
In its analysis, the consultancy states: “The results from the model suggest that the capacity gap between residual waste arisings and available treatment capacity will fall over time. This gap will decrease from the current (based on 2013/14 arisings data) level of 13.2 million tonnes, and move to a situation of potential overcapacity in the UK in 2019/20 (or in 2018/19 if the export of RDF is included in this analysis).
“To provide further context to these potential changes, it should be noted that 6.5 million tpa of capacity is currently under construction or committed (i.e. financial close has been reached).”
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