The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has welcomed the findings of the Government’s Review of Waste Policies, announced by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs yesterday.
Addressing the House of Commons, Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP re-affirmed the Coalition’s commitment to creating a ‘zero waste’ economy. ICE was one of the interested parties approached by the Government to give expert opinion on the subject.
The Waste Review includes commitments giving priority to waste prevention followed by re-use, recycling and recovery.
The full report can be viewed on the DEFRA website: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste
Responding to Government’s Review of Waste Policy, Chair of ICE’s Waste and Resources Management Panel Phil Butler said:
“Government’s commitment to a resource efficient economy that will unlock the true value of our waste is to be commended; however it is crucial that we now see these commitments translated into action.
“Importantly if Government is serious about achieving a ‘zero waste’ economy we need to focus on quality and quantity of recycled materials. This will ensure that the UK gets the maximum environmental and economic benefits from recycling by meeting the increasingly stringent quality standards demanded by end users of materials.
“There will of course be environmental and economic limits to recycling and we must unlock the economic value of the residual waste by driving forward the energy from waste sector.
“In the past lack of local support has been a major barrier so it is very encouraging that Government has committed to helping communities directly benefit from hosting energy from waste infrastructure, however this now needs to be supported by financial and regulatory frameworks, in particular, ensuring the proposed Green Investment Bank’s priorities include energy from waste projects.”
Alongside the Waste Review, Mrs Spelman also set out the Government’s commitment to increasing energy from waste through Anaerobic Digestion.
This method produces renewable energy which can be used to power homes and vehicles. Farmers and gardeners can also benefit from the fertiliser produced returning valuable nutrients to the land.
ICE is keen to promote the value of this renewable energy resource, ensuring the maximum value is extracted from waste materials.
The East Midlands is leading the way in pioneering this technology. The region is home to the UK’s first commercial scale dedicated crop digestion plant at Stoke Bardolph, Nottinghamshire.
Owned and operated by Severn Trent plc, the plant produces more than 15Gwh of energy each year to help power Nottingham’s main sewage treatment works.
Rather than using waste, the project uses farmland which is unsuitable for food crop production.
This process uses 37,000 tonnes of crop silage grown on Severn Trent’s own farm. Each day 100 tonnes of maize is fed in to the plant and over 90 days the organic matter is broken down giving off methane.
The biogas is fed into a combined heat and power plan to produce electricity, saving the equivalent of 7,400 tonnes of carbon each year.
The project is one of the finalists in the large Category project of the ICE East Midlands Merit Awards to be announced at the annual Gala Dinner and Annual Awards on 24 June.