In
March, Defra’s Minister of State for Food Farming and Fisheries, issued a
Direction to the Environmental Agency to temporarily pause environmental permitting
decisions on new waste incineration facilities. It was stated this was to allow
Defra officials to “further consider the role of waste incineration in the
management of wastes in England”. This was instigated in response to
Ministerial concerns as to whether incineration of waste was compatible with
the Governments net zero strategy and a wish to encourage greater waste
prevention.
Now
that coal has been virtually eliminated from the UK electricity generation mix,
this focuses greater attention on the impacts of burning residual waste streams
which now generate the highest carbon footprints for power generation, due to
the fossil derived contaminants in the feedstock. Around 50% of the residual
waste stream comprises fossil sources of carbon. Incineration of mixed residual
waste streams has to date been the major route of disposal. Around 12-13
million tonnes of residual waste are left after recycling in England and Wales,
with increasing costs associated with disposing of this into landfill due to
rising landfill tax rates.
Coincidently,
in parallel to this announcement, the UK’s Department for Transport has
announced that following Parliamentary Approval of the Energy Bill, it expects
to extend support under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) to
recycled carbon fuels (RCFs) from 1 May this year. These are fuels derived from
the fossil portion of residual waste or from capture and use of gaseous CO2
waste streams. The importance of this is that it now provides an additional
incentive for around half of the output from any advanced renewable fuel
production process that uses mixed residual waste as a feedstock.
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