The Green Investment Bank has significantly overestimated the amount of residual waste that will be available in the UK for treatment by 2020, the UK Without Incineration Network (UKWIN) has claimed.
The criticism follows a report published by the GIB on Wednesday (July 16) predicting the country is heading for a 7.7 million tonne shortfall in treatment capacity by 2020, with an investment of 5 billion needed to bridge the gap (see letsrecycle.com story).
‘When properly considered, the GIB report could actually confirm that we already have more incineration capacity (existing and under construction) than we would have genuinely residual, combustible waste available to burn.’
– Shlomo Dowen, UK Without Incineration Network secretary
The findings were welcomed by a number of waste organisations including the Environmental Services Association, which, alongside the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management and several waste management firms wrote to a number of government departments to draw attention to the infrastructure gap highlighted in the GIB report.
However, UKWIN secretary Shlomo Dowen contested the conclusions drawn by the report, arguing that GIB has not accounted for energy-from-waste plants already under development in its calculations, such as the 250 million Scottish and Southern Energy facility near Ferrybridge, West Yorkshire (see letsrecycle.com story).
Mr Dowen also flagged up discrepancies in the findings, adding that the 21 million tonnes of waste reported to have been sent to landfill at the standard rate of tax in 2012 was higher than the 19 million quoted by HMRC for that year.
Assumptions
Commenting on the report, Mr Dowen said: Unlike the Eunomia reports which anticipate residual waste treatment overcapacity based on conservative assumptions, the GIB report seems to seriously underestimate the capacity that currently exists or is under construction, whilst significantly overestimating the quantities of residual waste that would require treatment.
When properly considered, the GIB report could actually confirm that we already have more incineration capacity (existing and under construction) than we would have genuinely residual, combustible waste available to burn.
He added: The GIB report states that nearly 21 million tonnes went to landfill in 2012 [at the standard rate], but according to HMRC the quantity sent to landfill was less than 19 million in 2012, falling to around 17 million in 2013. Thus, there appears to be a 4 million tonne gap in the GIB’s landfill assumptions.
Veolia
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Mr Dowen went on to suggest that Veolia Environmental Services which was among the signatories of the letter to government had given evidence in 2010 proving that in Sheffield, far less commercial and industrial (C&I) waste was available for incineration than had been previously anticipated.
He said that only 5-10% of commercial and industrial waste generated in and around the city was available for the firms 225,000 tonnes-per-year plant in Bernard Road.
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