Report urges UK to take lead from Europe on EfW

The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the Renewable Power Association (RPA) said energy-from-waste incineration could ultimately generate 17% of the UK's electricity needs by 2020 as a replacement for fossil fuels.

”It is patently not in the UK's interest to allow the energy, enough to power the population of Wales and Northern Ireland every year, to go to waste by being buried. “
– Peter Gerstrom, ICE
The joint report, Quantification of the Potential Energy from Residuals in the UK, said that half the 30 million tonnes of household rubbish sent to landfill in England could have been used to create enough power to light 2 million homes.

A large majority of this waste is recognised in EU law as a source of renewable energy, the report said. The report argues that while better at recycling than the UK, other European countries also recover more energy from their waste.

Gaynor Hartnell, director of policy at the RPA, said: “Many of our European neighbours excel at both recycling and energy recovery. Producing energy from waste after recycling targets have been achieved is environmentally sound and will help us meet both our renewables targets and help us minimise the amount of waste going to landfill.”

Consultation
The ICE/RPA report comes as the government consults on the Renewables Obligation Certificate scheme, which provides financial incentives for power generators to provide energy drawn from renewable sources. The scheme aims to meet the EU Renewables Directive target of producing 10% of our electricity from renewable sources by 2010 and 20% by 2020.

Energy-from-waste incineration does not currently qualify for Renewable Obligation Certificates, but the DTI review published on April 4 has within its remit the opportunity to consider reversing this.

The ICE and RPA said the UK should seek to limit the “unsustainable option of landfill” for commercial and industrial waste, “to bring us in line with the rest of Europe”. The organisations are calling for “government support to encourage the development of this energy resource”.

Benefits
Peter Gerstrom, chairman of ICE's waste management board, said: “Waste into energy will have environmental benefits by reducing the rubbish mountain. It also has the added bonus that recycling residual biodegradable waste in this way is an effective way of hitting the targets in the EU Landfill Directive.

“It is patently not in the UK's interest to allow the energy, enough to power the population of Wales and Northern Ireland every year, to go to waste by being buried,” Mr Gerstrom said.

Extract
The call to extract more energy from waste, was supported by the Environmental Services Association which represents the UK's waste management industry.

ESA chief executive Dirk Hazell said: “The UK is undergoing a radical change in the way that it deals with waste.
The UK is recycling more than ever before, but we have overlooked the potential of extracting more energy from waste.”

Mr Hazell added: “Although most of the UK’s renewable energy is already derived from waste it accounts for just over 1% of energy use overall. Many other EU countries both recycle more, and extract more energy from their wastes: given the proper framework, the UK could safely produce about ten times as much energy from waste.”