The document looks at a range of issues from climate change across to more specific topics such as compost-like-outputs.
Launching the document at the Futuresource conference and exhibition in London, Veolia chief executive Jean-Dominique Mallet said that it was important to share the company's views now that a new coalition government was in place.
Deputy chief executive Paul Levett added: “The timing is particularly relevant given the announcement yesterday by Caroline Spelman of a forthcoming review of waste policy. This is the first step of our input into the review.”
The company concedes that waste collections, sorting and some treatment processes will “always be contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.” Consequently, Veolia ES supports the “development of new technologies and actively investigate their application to reduce and manage the carbon contribution from our sector. Waste management processes must be robust, reliable and sustainable, and new technology only introduced if it provides an economic benefit after the cost of carbon is taken into account.”
A number of Veolia ES carbon reduction initiatives are commented on. These include development with Volvo and Geesink Norba of a hybrid chassis and fully electronic body refuse collection vehicle and trials of a leachate treatment plant to recover ammonia at Candles landfill.
The manifesto tackles some thorny issues in terms of policy and also some fundamental regulatory topics.
On the contracts front, Veolia ES reiterates its stance that integrated waste management contracts are the best option for local authorities, taking something of a swipe at the PFI process and the Defra rationale that parceling up contracts can provide more competition and better access to work for small- and medium-sized firms.
Glass
Glass recycling is given the thumbs down in terms of kerbside collection. Instead, the installation of bottle banks at “regularly visited locations” is deemed the best solution to capture “high levels of used glass from householders”.
Veolia is also of the view that preference should be given to recycling the glass back to a usable product rather than using it as aggregate because product creation makes significant energy savings compared to aggregate usage.
Mr Levett said: “Wherever possible we will look for opportunities for glass to be separately collected…bottle banks are probably the best way to go but we are also looking at some [sorting] technology solutions as well.”
For other materials, the company throws its support firmly behind commingled collections – in line with what it calls a “growing trend” in the industry- because it says it leads to higher recycling rates and greater efficiencies.
Mr Levett said: “Most of the major players in the waste industry understand that commmingled is the most effective way to go in most cases.”
Bottom ash and MBT
Other topics covered in this year's manifesto include incinerator bottom ash and compost-like-outputs from MBT (mechanical biological treatment) plants.
On bottom ash – or IBA – the company reasons that metals, glass and aggregate “recovered from IBA are recycled in the same way as materials collected through municipal collections. This means they should be counted within local authority recycling performance, as they are in other EU countries.”
Some of Veolia's strongest words in the manifesto concern compost-like-outputs (CLO). After explaining that a CLO is the output after mixed municipal solid waste is biologically treated in mechanical biological treatment plants or autoclave systems, Veolia notes that some claims are made that CLO has “agricultural benefits and can be used as a soil improver”.
The company's view is that MBT of residual waste is an “industrial process that can only extract and treat a percentage of contaminants”.
“MBT extraction efficiencies vary between 60-80% and the remaining contaminants can end up in the final organic product. If the concentrations measured in the final CLO product are low it is only because the MBT process is effectively 'diluting' the contaminants with other substances. If applied to land the contaminants will accumulate and may enter the food chain.”
Veolia argues that CLO should only be used in applications such as land restoration and reclamation “on clearly defined sites”.
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