Technology industry very pleased over WFD revisions

The EIC's Waste Resources Management Working Group – which is comprised of members who supply technology and services to waste, recycling, treatment and landfill industries – was influential in campaigning for the amended Directive to contain a process by which reprocessed materials may be ‘declassified' as waste, in a bid to bring consistency and certainty to material reprocessors.

Speaking yesterday (July 8) at the EIC Annual Report press briefing, Anne Harrison, a member of the working group, said that members were “very pleased” to consequently see the Directive include provisions for the exclusion of unexcavated contaminated soil and excavated contaminated soil for reuse on site, a definition of ‘by-product' and an article on end-of-waste status (see letsrecycle.com story).

In particular, she welcomed the end of life article, because it avoided the “catch-22 of new marketable materials not being considered for an end of waste criteria because they are new and not yet marketed, but being unable to attract markets because they remain defined as waste until a market is proven.”

Ms Harrison said: “Waste management can add time, cost and uncertainty to businesses who handle waste materials. Not only is there enormous potential for the UK economy's bottom line for waste materials to be reprocessed into clean, useable materials and sold into existing markets, but it will also contribute to the UK's transition to a low carbon economy.”

“The group's aim is to maximise opportunities for effective materials recovery without jeopardising environmental standards”, she added.

Protocols 

Ms Harrison explained that EIC working group has also been heavily involved in the development of the Environment Agency and WRAP's Waste Protocols – which similarly seek to re-define the point at which wastes cease to be a waste – and was represented on the Waste Protocols Advisory Board.

In a bid to drive the work further, she said that members had recently written to waste and recycling minister Joan Ruddock to obtain further funding for the protocols project.

Contrary to recent concerns over rises in Landfill Tax (see letsrecycle.com story) the Group has also welcomed the introduction of a Landfill Tax escalator of £8 a tonne from April 2008, and raised its support for further increases in Landfill Tax beyond 2010-11 in recent meetings with Angela Eagle MP, Treasury minister responsible for environmental issues and with the head of the HM Treasury.