OPINION: I’ve been working in the energy sector for over 30 years, the last three of those in Energy from Waste (EfW).
In that time, I’ve been struck by how successful the sector has been in delivering investment and driving down emissions. I’ve also been struck by just how many mistaken beliefs there are about our sector. I can’t think of an industry that faces more misconceptions about its operations, what it wants, and what it’s here to do.
Everyone – myself included – can agree that, as a society, we’re producing too much waste.
What is less clear is how we tackle this. Reducing, repairing and recycling are all big parts of the answer. But that doesn’t provide a solution for the millions of tonnes of unrecyclable waste produced by the UK each year.
EfW facilities already play a big part here. Diverting unrecyclable waste from landfill as its core function and generating electricity and heat as a by-product, ensuring that nothing of value is wasted.
But there is much more that our sector can do. 2025 looks set to be a big year for waste and recycling policy, with a real opportunity to change the UK’s system for the better and support growth goals.
In 2023, we set up Resource Recovery UK (RRUK): an alliance of likeminded organisations in the UK’s EfW sector. RRUK’s members – Cory, Encyclis, enfinium and Viridor – came together because we saw the critical juncture facing the UK when it comes to delivering economic growth, net zero and a circular economy. And we recognised the importance of setting us on the right path.
As the inaugural chair, Owen Michaelson put forward a vision for progress, founded on improving recognition of the vital role of EfW within the waste hierarchy, its contribution to the circular economy and its ability to support net zero targets. One of RRUK’s early initiatives was to make the case for Landfill Tax to be properly aligned with the real rate of inflation, a change that was subsequently announced in the Budget last March.
I have recently become Chair of RRUK and I’m ambitious for the role that our sector can play in underpinning these goals. There’s lots to do, and I’m keen to get started on three key priorities for our sector: the expansion of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to include EfW; the ongoing rollout of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology; and the government’s work to develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England.
Emissions trading to drive waste sector decarbonisation
Chief amongst these policy issues is how EfW will be incorporated into the UK’s ETS. This change will be transformative for the waste sector and presents a huge opportunity to drive decarbonisation – not only in waste, but across the economy.
But to deliver a truly world-leading scheme, stakeholders along the waste value chain need to work together to ensure the expansion is designed, sequenced and implemented in the right way. This will be key to avoiding harmful unintended consequences that run counter to this goal, such as waste moving down the hierarchy to landfill or exports.
Importantly, EfW’s inclusion in ETS also needs to be designed in a way to incentivise and drive the removal of plastics from residual waste, further increasing the potential for our sector to underpin the UK’s negative emissions market.
Unlocking negative emissions through EfW
EfW facilitates are already acting as critical social infrastructure by treating residual, non-recyclable waste. But with developments in CCS technology, EfW facilities fitted with this innovative technology will be able to go a step further.
Not only will installing CCS on EfW facilities decarbonise the nation’s unrecyclable waste, but it will enable us to create high-quality carbon removals – otherwise known as negative emissions – decarbonising hard-to-abate parts of the economy and society.
This week, the Climate Change Committee estimated that by 2050, the UK will need at least 35 million tonnes of engineered removals of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year to achieve net zero. And EfW’s role in processing biogenic waste puts it in a unique position to kickstart the negative emissions market and support the delivery of this target.
In fact, the UK’s EfW sector alone could generate around 8 to 10 million tonnes of removals a year – more than a quarter of the Climate Change Committee’s 2050 target. RRUK’s members are already investing in CCS, with projects worth billions in the pipeline and our sector representing the largest industry group in the DESNZ CCS cluster sequencing programme.
EfW’s as a key pillar of a Circular Economy
Defra has set out an important ambition to develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England this year. I fully support this focus and see a clear role for EfW – both in continuing to reduce the UK’s reliance on landfill and ensuring residual waste is treated in the most modern and efficient EfW facilities available.
Through its investment in CCS deployment and leveraging waste as a resource for local heat networks and private wires to local business, our sector is well positioned to support the move to a circular economy, while simultaneously driving economic growth and supporting the pathway to net zero.
It’s clear that we are facing into a defining year for our sector. Taken together, these three areas represent a real opportunity to transform the waste sector. And setting the right policy and market conditions to achieve this is key.
With so much on the horizon, there really is no time to waste. RRUK stands ready to work with policymakers and others along the waste value chain to make sure this once-in-a-generation opportunity isn’t lost.
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