Wheelabrator Tech. UK

A major new energy-from-waste facility is set to be built at paper giant DS Smith Paper’s Kemsley Mill, near Sittingbourne in Kent, after developers secured the final approval needed for the project to go ahead.

A report called Rubbish to Resource is calling for renewed focus on financing new waste and resource management infrastructure. It warns that unless the government sets up the right conditions to improve investor confidence in building new processing facilities, the country will be faced with unreasonable costs for waste disposal.

A new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) reveals a big potential to cut greenhouse gases (GHGs) from municipal solid waste management. The report, 'Waste opportunities – Past and future climate benefits from better municipal waste management in Europe', covers the EU-27 (excluding Cyprus), Norway and Switzerland. It estimates that these countries could make GHG savings of up to 78 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) by 2020, or 1.53 % of Europe's emissions in 2008.

The government has rejected calls from opposition MPs to exclude EfW incinerators from new guidelines that aim to speed up the planning process for large-scale (50mw+) renewable energy infrastructure.

A new legally-binding set of guidelines from the EU on the waste hierarchy sees EfW facilities move up from 'disposal' to 'recovery' in terms of energy efficiency.

DECC's revised draft national policy statement recognises EfW technology as having an "increasingly important role in meeting the UK's energy needs"

Government ministers are set to meet industry representatives to discuss setting up community benefit packages to win public favour with waste proposals.