Last week Mike Maudsley, chair of Resource Recovery UK and chief executive officer of enfinium, spoke out following the Seventh Carbon Budget on the Energy from Waste sector’s role in growth and Net Zero, speaking positively about the significant role EfW facilities can play in driving the UK’s circular economy strategy and Net Zero. 

A thoughtful and positive view of initiatives like the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETSUK) and CCUS, Maudsley’s article talks of how exciting the next year could be for Energy from Waste and the opportunities that sit on the horizon for the sector.

For example, Maudsley cites that the UK’s EfW sector alone could generate around 8 to 10 million tonnes of carbon removals each year – more than a quarter of the Climate Change Committee’s 2050 target which is, indeed, huge. 

And, of course, no conversation on the future of Energy from Waste within the context of Net Zero is complete without the mention of landfill and the important role EfW is and will continue to play in diverting waste from landfill, Maudsley stating within this article, rightly so that - 

“EfW facilities already play a big part here. Diverting unrecyclable waste from landfill as its core function and generating electricity and heat as a by-product, ensuring that nothing of value is wasted.”

Viewing EfW facilities as a solution to diverting waste from landfill and using it in a productive way - to generate energy from that waste - is the very best way to look at and talk about EfW; especially in the current climate where the public discourse surrounding EfW facilities is so negative and a lot of that comes from focus on carbon emissions, plus a general misunderstanding of EfW facilities and the sector as a whole.

Indeed, for Energy from Waste facilities to thrive in the current climate, contribute to economic growth and the UK’s Net Zero strategy, we need the discourse, and therefore the focus, to change and credit given to the contribution EfWs can make to diverting waste that is otherwise unrecyclable and making use of it.

More than this, however, we also need Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage technologies to be more accessible to the sector by becoming more economically viable. 

This could be achieved by opening up government initiatives to incentivise wide-scale adoption, developing shared infrastructure for transportation and storage, and investing in technological innovation to improve capture efficiency, as well as scaling up projects to achieve economies of scale. 

Maudsely’s article offers a fantastic insight into the potential of EfW in the current climate and the positive impact Energy from Waste facilities can make to Net Zero efforts. But for EfW facilities to truly make a difference, we still need so much to change.