The analogy was drawn last week by Alexander Maddan, chair of the Organics Recycling Group of the Renewable Energy Association, while addressing members at their annual conference held at Horwood House, Milton Keynes.
Mr Maddan spoke of how there had been tremendous growth and development in organics recycling and treatment and how this mainly delivered by “entrepreneurs who are self-funded and have provided recycling at the lowest cost.”
The chair also emphasised how the sector is seeking to be “fairly-treated” by the regulators and he expressed disappointment that the Environment Agency had not attended the event.
“There is no-one here from the EA which I think is very, very sad.”
Mr Maddan said that the ORG had been looking at the statistics in terms of site-scoring to try and work out was going on. “They are saying look at you, look at the terrible environmental impact. We treat a relatively innocuous waste into a product and they say there are 13 entrenched poor performers.”
And, Mr Maddan said that the ORG had been working to identify issues and explore data but that it was difficult to find out the true situation because of data confidentiality, the fact that some of it was out of date and that it had also been found that poor scores had been applied “because we don’t fit exactly with our permits. I asked what are the seriousness of these complaints and causes? We are now challenging these D,E,F statistics, to discover whether it really is poor performance. We would like people to come forward and share knowledge so that we won’t be patronised as the sinners that they think we are.”
And, to show how the industry had made improvements when needed, the end of the day saw presentations showing how members had reacted responsibly to difficulties to rapidly improve performance when issues been raised by the Agency.
Quality
Also speaking at the event, Viridor’s national organics and recycling manager Bill Griffiths emphasised the importance of producing quality compost material in the current tough commodities market and local authority austerity.
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He pointed to the irony of the fact that the event was being held at Horwood House, birthplace of legendary TV gardening presenter Percy Thrower who had first promoted the use of peat in compost to the public as a whole.
“Now we are here to champion the successful use of organic material in compost,” said Mr Griffiths.
Mr Griffiths argued that organics recyclers need to look to other sources of revenue beyond the traditionally low gate fees from agriculture by making money at the back end of the market and selling compost directly to households, rather than to the likes of supermarkets and garden centres.
But he also called on organics recyclers to make sure they had strong evidence of the quality of their material: “Product liability is the big issue that we should all be concerned about. If things go wrong – and they can do – then you need to be able to fall back on something. You need backed-up evidence to secure your position.”
Local authority
Daniel Roberts, senior environmental service office at South Staffordshire council, then backed-up Bill Griffiths’ call for quality feedstock from local authorities, explaining how the borough had negotiated a long-term green waste contract to help prevent householder confusion and cut contamination. The council collected more than 13,000 tonnes of green waste in 2013/14.
Mr Roberts told the conference: “Be very clear on communication. We have had a consistent service for 10 years so we don’t change the day and we don’t change the bin.”
Following Mr Roberts, Arjen Brinkmann of the Dutch Association of Biowaste Processors (BVOR) gave an overview of the emerging market in the Netherlands for extracting woody biomass from compost for use in fuel as a peat substitute, which he explained was a good market for attracting renewable energy subsidies.
Mr Griffiths later warned that UK composters would need to be careful that removing woody biomass at the start of the composting process did not constitute ‘recovery’ rather than ‘recycling’.
Nevertheless, Mr Roberts said that in the Netherlands: “Extracting biomass from green waste has become a success story.”
Brian Chambers fund
Following the conference, the gala dinner saw more than £1,000 raised for the recently-established Brian Chambers Soil Fund
Although still in its early stages, it is hoped that the fund will help to support the training and development of young scientists looking to follow in the footsteps of Dr Chambers in building knowledge in soil science.
Dr Brian J Chambers, who was head of the ADAS Soils and Nutrient Group, passed away suddenly at the age of 53 at the end of August 2014. He had almost 30 years’ experience at ADAS conducting research in soil science and was highly regarded in the organics recycling industry (see letsrecycle.com story)
Introducing the fund during the gala dinner, Paul Newell Price, who was Mr Chambers’ colleague at ADAS, had given a heartfelt tribute to his friend, highlighting his strong sense of humour as well as his passion for both Newcastle United FC and soil science.
And, following the event, it was confirmed that attendees had donated more than £1,000 on the night to the fund, which was set up in memory of Dr Chambers by his widow and organised in conjunction with the British Society of Soil Science.
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