OPINION: The decision to bring Energy from Waste (EfW) into the ETS scheme from 2028 is intended to promote the removal of fossil-based plastics from mixed residual waste and lower incineration carbon emissions.
But how will waste handlers’ individual efforts to sort and segregate their waste be recognised? And how will EfW operators ensure fairness in their gate prices?
While charging a blanket gate price to combust residual waste is the most manageable solution for EfW operators, it fails to reward or recognise the work many waste handlers do to sort their waste and minimise their costs and carbon. Measuring emissions at the stack while providing an accurate total, is too broad a brush.
However, they require a system that is easy to manage and doesn’t create arduous additional work – all of which could impact cost anyway. It’s not an easy situation – which is why some of the industry’s best minds are consulting on the matter over the next few years.
For me, and as the whole point of ETS is to change our waste behaviours, the answer has to lie in a system where those harnessing innovation and using new methods to extract plastics from waste are rewarded.
Looking ahead, waste handlers will likely need to carry out their own independent testing on the fuel (RDF/SRF) they produce to ensure it includes both anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic content. This means waste handlers will be able to provide meaningful data to the EfW operators—data that can be used to lower gate fees. While independent auditing is not without its cost, it will be significantly less than the cost of sending waste to EfW without it.
Whilst these essential details are ironed out – waste handlers need to set their sights firmly on waste disposal methods that allow them to get ahead of the changes, reduce their reliance on traditional routes and stabilise their costs.
Greater uptake of waste innovation is vital here. However, this will only be achieved if those breaking the status quo and doing things differently have their efforts and investments recognised. After all, these incentives will drive newer, more environmentally responsible behaviours and the change we need to see at all levels of the waste industry.
A recent news story suggested growing concerns that the ETS emissions limit for EfW operators has been set too low. It was suggested that this could force some EfW operators to downsize or even close, significantly reducing incineration availability in the UK. Alongside the ban on sending biodegradable municipal waste to landfill in Scotland in 2025 and by 2028 in England, and the rising cost of waste exports, this would worsen an already challenging landscape for waste handlers.
However, EfW operators will unlikely exceed their ETS targets as they can simply alter their fuel mix. For example, including more biogenic carbon to offset the fossil carbon they are combusting. It’s widely recognised that EfW operators do not want a plastic-rich mix as it burns too hot in the grate and limits the volume of waste they can accept. The calorific value is reduced by adding more organic material, e.g. fines, etc, which will lower the combustion temperature and CO2 emissions and allow them to accept more waste.
For waste handlers, this threat of reduced disposal options, however likely, highlights the urgency of change. As long as we have waste, we must concentrate on extracting as much value from it as possible— be that by sorting, testing, and/or embracing technologies that open up a wider variety of offtake routes. But there have to be the right rewards, which means a system that recognises innovation by lowering costs.
Subscribe for free