LONDON: An RDF Export Industry Group featuring a number of leading waste operators has been formed to ‘explore and address issues surrounding RDF export from the UK’, it was announced today.
Members of the working group include both leading UK waste operators and RDF exporters such as Biffa, Veolia and FCC Environment, as well as major recipients of material on the continent, such as Dutch waste incinerator AEB Amsterdam and Swedish fuel buyer EFO AB.
According to consultancy Eunomia, which will oversee the Group as secretariat, the Group will “provide a platform for the industry to communicate its work to third parties including the government and other key stakeholders in the form of reports, presentations or other communications material”.
Eunomia said that the Group was currently developing a report for publication later this summer, which would be presented to Defra following the government’s recent consultation on the UK’s RDF (refuse derived fuel) export industry. Defra has said it will seek to develop an RDF treatment standard.
This report will include “evidence-based information which considers legal, environmental and economic issues relating to RDF export”, Eunomia said.
A spokeswoman for Eunomia explained that although the Defra consultation closed last year and industry responses have been published, the Department is still seeking industry input and views on the export of RDF from the UK, which continues to grow significantly.
Environment Agency RDF export figures covering England and Wales in March 2015 showed that a record 256,309 tonnes were sent to the continent during that month, while overall export tonnage rose 17% during the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same quarter last year.
