BioGen Power

The big waste issue

The UK waste market, and consequently the role of EfW, is undergoing significant transition as a result of EU and UK legislation aimed at diverting waste away from landfill (according to DEFRA, around 67 per cent of municipal waste currently goes to landfill in the UK).

The existing EfW market sector in the UK has been dominated by traditional moving grate ‘mass burn’ incinerators. However, the introduction of Advanced Thermal Treatment (“ATT”), including gasification and pyrolysis, will create a sub-sector of smaller, greener and cleaner EfW waste disposal facilities.

In 2004/05 the UK produced 335 million tonnes of waste, with Municipal Solid Waste (“MSW”) accounting for approx 10 per cent of the total, and commercial and industrial waste (“CIW”) accounting for approximately 25 per cent. The remaining 65 per cent of waste consists, in the main, of Construction and Demolition (“C&D”) waste.

Despite emphasis by DEFRA on waste minimisation, it is anticipated that waste will continue to increase due to population growth, and a continued increase in industrial and commercial activity.

Historically, the UK has relied on landfill as its primary method of final disposal, compared to its European neighbours which have made use of technologies such as EfW. The UK has now adopted European Landfill Diversion legislation and thus has strict targets that will see the country reducing its reliance on landfill over future years. For local councils, which dispose of MSW and commercial and industrial waste companies, there are two main financial incentives to divert from landfill in the UK:

• Landfill Tax for MSW, of which the current charge is £32 per tonne, rising by £8 per tonne per annum to £48 per tonne in 2010/11; and,
• Each local authority, if responsible for waste disposal, has been allocated an allowance per annum of biomass waste (BMW) to go to landfill. A fixed penalty of £150/tonne will be payable should these allowances be breached in a scheme year.

BioGen Power EfW plants provide local authorities and commercial waste producers with a cost-effective and environmentally clean solution that diverts residual waste from landfill, while also providing valuable energy that displaces fossil fuels such as gas, oil and coal.