Last week, the UK’s leading Energy from Waste Conference took place in London, bringing together waste professionals from across the globe to discuss policy, technology and funding within the sector. Talks included discussion on bringing more certainty to the sector, changing narratives and the vital role EfW plays in achieving decarbonisation targets.  

Unsurprisingly, the BBC report released last year that dubbed EfW as the ‘dirtiest form of power’ popped up throughout discussions across the two days. The report ignored other vital roles the sector plays in waste treatment and overlooked the development of CCS to decarbonise the sector – two points that are brought up whenever a news story comes out about EfW. However, many speakers over the two days noted that these concerns were not always shared by the public. 

Every five years you get a new excitable young journo who hits the environment and science beat and thinks that they've found an exciting new story [with EfW emissions],” explained the ESA's Jacob Hayler during a talk on carbon pricing. “It pretty much had zero impact with policymakers and if you went on the BBC website and looked at the comments from the public, they're pretty universally saying, ‘OK, well if we get rid of these plants, what are we meant to do with our waste?’” 

This thinking was echoed during the investor's panel on day two, where it was noted that lenders had had concerns surrounding carbon emissions way before any BBC report came out but have since been convinced otherwise, thanks to efforts to decarbonise.  

However, the BBC report was also used by many speakers as a case study of why EfW needs a narrative change and to improve its ability to ‘sell itself’ – whether that’s to the future workforce or policymakers. “A lot of people in this room talk a good guy, but the narrative is not the people in the room,” explained SUEZ's Dr Adam Read during the last talk of the conference on the future of waste.

The narrative is the people that aren't in the room who ultimately make big decisions that might affect all of you and a sector that is in transition.”  

There were mentions of rebranding EfW operators to ‘material management companies’ by academic and Deputy chair of the UK Government’s Circular Economy Task Force Paul Ekins, while Paul de Bruycker (Executive Chairman at Indaver Group and President of CEWEP) suggested that to appeal to the next generation, the sector needs to highlight the good it does for the circular economy and the decarbonising of waste.

What I have discovered is that young people want to give value to what they do and not just come for the pay,” Paul de Bruycker added.   

But to be able to decarbonise, there are a few things that policy needs to get right first, including the Emissions Trading Scheme. At the last Energy from Waste Conference in 2024, ETS was at the top of every agenda and with a change in government and the creation of CCS pilot schemes since, it has remained there. Because of its complexity, certainty is key or runs the risk of becoming “a lot of complexity for no benefit”, Viridor’s Chief Sustainability Officer Tim Rotheray warned.  

DESNZ’s Head of Scope Expansion of the UK Emissions Trading, Sam Reed, gave the first talk of the conference – providing an update on policy surrounding EfW’s entrance to the ETS. The plans to introduce carbon taxes on the sector have raised concerns that the costs would be too high on both EfW companies and local authorities which would make EfW plants an unviable way to treat waste and the potential to bankrupt LAs.  

Despite these challenges, it is clear there is support in the sector for ETS, but only if it can be done right. Sam Reed assured that the Government is not going to introduce any obligations that are impossible to comply with and that using the monitoring period before the sector’s entry to ETS in 2028 would be vital in deciding how to move forward. 

"We completely recognise there's a need to give clarity as soon as possible, especially for operators that are expecting to start monitoring from next year. The longer we leave it to tell you guys what you need to do, the more of our options go away,” explained Sam Reed. “So, for reassurance, we're not going to introduce any obligations that are impossible to comply with at all. The whole spirit of this monitoring reporting period is flexibility and learning, and getting used to the ETS and how that works.” 

Bringing certainty to all aspects of the waste stream remains vital for everything to work smoothly. A phrase coined by Ian Crummack (Cobalt Energy) at this year’s conference was “unintended consequences” – if policy isn’t done right, or narratives aren’t changed, it can affect the workings throughout the waste sector.    

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, however. Updates on the CCS pilots and other technological advances brought promising news for the sector, and during the future of waste talk on day two, Paul Ekins complemented the sector on its innovation and highlighted its importance within the circular economy.

Growth comes from innovation and new technology and investment. It's been a delight to hear so much discussion of that here, from some really smart entrepreneurs looking at ways of developing technologies that will look at materials with a negative value and convert them into materials that have added value,” he said. “Many sessions have drawn our attention to the risk of unintended consequences, but I ask you to think of intended consequences because we are intending to disrupt the current model of waste – a direction lots of people here are working towards.”  

Energy is just one by-product that can be created by EfW facilities – something that the likes of the BBC report overlook – and the conference proved that many within the sector are finding new ways to make the most out of our waste. In response to Paul Ekins, Dr Adam Read added:

Waste is resources in the wrong hands at the wrong time. If you give it to the right person at the right time, they can do something interesting with it. Then you start to realise that there's a whole world opening up where the value of [waste] is higher than [we thought].”  

The discussions over the two-day conference reinforced that EfW plays a crucial role in both achieving decarbonisation targets and advancing the UK’s transition to a circular economy. However, for the sector to truly thrive, clarity in policy, investment in innovation, and an improvement in public narrative are essential. If the industry, alongside policymakers, can find the right approach, then the risks of "unintended consequences" can be transformed into intended progress, ensuring that waste is no longer seen as a problem but as an opportunity.