GARWER WasteXchange News

New EU waste legislation approved Posted: 26 Jun 2008 12:58 PM CDT A new directive has been put in place following the decision of MEPs to adopt amendments to EU waste legislation. Member states will now be required to draw up binding waste disposal and recycling targets and adhere to them. Waste prevention targets will be considered by the European Commission in future, and incineration of waste will be classified as a recovery operation providing it meets certain energy efficiency criteria. This second reading vote by the European Parliament took place on 17 June in Strasbourg and approved the agreement previously reached with the Council to revise the waste framework directive. The decision will have a knock-on effect on all European waste legislation as it sets the ground rules for all future waste legislation. European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said "This legislation marks a shift in thinking about waste from an unwanted burden to a valued resource and helps to make Europe a recycling society. It introduces a modernised approach to waste management, with clearer definitions, greater emphasis on prevention of waste and ambitious new recycling goals. The clear definitions and waste management principles it sets out will resolve existing interpretation problems, reduce the number of court cases and create a sound legal basis for the functioning of the waste treatment sector." Caroline Jackson, MEP, has been campaigning tirelessly for the new measures to be put in place. She has received backing from many other MEPs, a lot of whom were disappointed that no binding waste prevention target was put in place. After hearing the results Jackson said "It has been a long and tortuous road to this second reading. There was much resistance to what we wanted to do and the Council drove a very hard bargain... That is the best deal available. Anyone who thinks that we could get anything better by going to conciliation would be deceiving themselves." One victory for the MEPs was the re-use and recycling targets which state that 50% of all household waste materials, such as paper, metal and glass, and similar waste streams must be recycled by 2020, plus 70% of all non-hazardous construction and demolition waste. The new legislation also sets out a five-step hierarchy of waste management options which deems that government priorities for the handling of waste should run in this order: prevention of waste being the most important, then reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery, followed by safe disposal as a last option. The legislation has clarified some important terms for those in the waste sector too, creating new definitions for 'recycling', 'recovery' and 'waste'. It has also defined the difference between waste and its by-products, and defined the point at which recovered waste, which has been recycled or treated, should no longer be classified as waste.

UK: Tyres help cement firm cut emissions Posted: 26 Jun 2008 12:53 PM CDT A major cement producer says it has reduced nitrogen oxide emissions from one of its plants by 40% after using chipped tyres as a substitute fuel. CEMEX UK said its most recent trial of the fuel at its plant in Rugby met and exceeded a number of "critical success factors" agreed with the industry regulator, the Environment Agency. A [url=http://www.rugby.gov.uk/site/scripts/download_info.php?downloadID=1689]draft report published for public consultation[/url] said increasing the use of tyres from three to six tonnes per hour improved its Environmental Index by 33% and reduced nitrogen oxide emissions by 26%. Since the start of tyre use as a fuel for the cement kilns at the Rugby plant, the company's emissions of nitrogen oxides have fallen by about 40% and the use of fossil duels has dropped 24%. Bosses said the trial offers one solution to the problem of the 40m tyres a year that are scrapped in the UK. CEMEX UK's sustainability director Andy Spencer told edie: "[i]We are building on the significant progress we made last year, when we increased alternative fuels use by 52%, by increasing the substitution rates. This has led to significant environmental improvements[/i]." He added: "[i]While CEMEX UK is making good progress in terms of reducing emissions and the carbon footprint associated with cement-making, the aim is for the company to increase the use of alternative fuels as much as possible, in order to maximise environmental performance[/i]." CEMEX was originally granted a permit by the Environment Agency to use chipped tyres at a rate of three tonnes per hour in February 2007, and they have been used continuously since then. It is part of a wide alternative fuels programme in Rugby and other CEMEX plants in a bid to improve the company's environmental performance. Early indications are that a trial of Climafuel, which is derived from household residual waste and commercial waste, is producing similar results to the tyres. [i]Kate Martin [/i]

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