Remondis UK Boss Calls on Waste Industry to Pull Together

With an election on the horizon in the UK, it has never been more important for the waste industry to work together or risk falling risk behind the rest of Europe, explains Marcus Bauer, managing director of Remondis UK... While government and industry currently work together to manage waste, inevitably, with potential political changes on the horizon, the future for waste in the UK can never be certain. With this in mind, it’s imperative that we as an industry – and the only constant in this equation – have a clear strategy in place for the future of waste in the UK. Whichever party is elected this spring, and whatever decisions it makes in regards to whose portfolio waste will sit, we need to ensure any waste produced here is treated as a valuable resource. There is still uncertainty about whether the UK is ready to harness waste’s full potential. Accordingly, do we have the infrastructure, know how, legislation and, perhaps most importantly, the financial support to really make the most of the country’s waste? At Remondis UK, we are lucky to be able to send our clients’ waste to other Remondis-owned plants across the globe, whether that be our German plant, LÜnen, which takes in non-hazardous powders for the production of Radibin, or Bramsche, which takes waste to produce a patented product, (Renotherm), or to one of our UK facilities, such as SecAnim, a facility dedicated to the production of processed animal proteins. However, this ability is currently an exception rather than the norm in the UK. This shouldn’t be the case if we are to make the most of the resources available. As an industry, we need to have the space and investment to process waste in a way that can help meet energy demands, as well as creating completely new products for use in manufacturing and construction. More needs to be done to make use of energy from waste e.g. RDF (refuse derived fuel) and SRF (solid recovered fuel) in the UK market, rather than exporting overseas. However, we are not yet in a position to make the most of this at home. Energy from waste infrastructure can take considerable time and significant financial investment to develop, which means the export market still remains both an environmentally-friendly and cost-effective solution. In order to be able to emulate the examples set by our European counterparts, significant efforts to educate both the industry and producers at every level need to be made. In other countries, policies and standards are in place to ensure that everyone has the knowledge and channels available to make the most of waste streams. In addition to this, policy and guidance is in place to help people reuse, repurpose and recycle. If this does not happen soon, we will not only be unable to meet our waste targets by 2020 but we’ll lose our standing within the European marketplace. That will be devastating not only to our waste industry but, potentially, to the UK economy in general. Marcus Bauer, managing director of Remondis UK Read More Are Current EU C&D Waste Recycling Targets an Obstacle to Growth? Peter Craven, Head of Marketing at CDE Global argues that rather than demonstrating success these targets are masking wider problems in the CD&E waste recycling sector across Europe… R1 Climate Correction Factor for Waste to Energy Plants Finally Agreed Hubert de Chefdebien and Guillaume Perron-Piché of the European Suppliers of Waste to Energy Technology discuss the latest developments to the R1 Formula enacted by the Commission and Member States on 17 November 2014… California vs. Big Plastic – Don’t Ditch the Plastic Bag Ban Mark Murray of California vs. Big Plastic shares his thoughts on the plastic bag industry turning in signatures to the California Secretary of State today seeking to force a referendum on the state’s ban recently signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown…