According to the waste company, ten plants have received the R1 classification, which between them have capacity to treat around 2 million tonnes of refuse per year and generate an estimated 240MWe of electricity.
EfW facilities currently in operation include Leeds, Battlefield near Shrewsbury, Newhaven, Chineham in Hampshire, Sheffield, Birmingham, Integra South West in Portsmouth, Integra South East in Southampton, Four Ashes in Staffordshire, and the South East London Combined Heat and Power (SELCHP) plant.
The R1 accreditation means that energy from waste plants can be classed as ‘recovery’ rather than a ‘disposal’ process for the treatment of non-recyclable waste.
Criteria
The criteria for achieving R1 status are set out in the EU Waste Framework Directive and act as a performance indicator for the level of energy recovered from waste. These are based on factors including the energy produced by a plant and the energy contained in the waste.
Since 2015 only EfW plants that are R1-compliant have been able to issue packaging recovery notes (PRNs), which can be purchased to cover both the recovery and general requirements of producers under the packaging waste regime.
Richard Kirkman, technical director for Veolia UK and Ireland, said: “Access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy has a direct impact on modern life, and is linked to fuel poverty and carbon emissions. To virtually eliminate wastes and produce energy in its place is a win-win situation.
“By generating green electricity and heat from resources such as non-recyclable residual waste we improve resource efficiency, reduce landfill and achieve greater sustainability as part of the circular economy.”
Defra
Data released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs at the start of the year revealed that the number of successful applications for R1 classification had increased in 2015. However the list of plants included facilities that are no longer in the design stage or had been counted more than once (see letsrecycle.com story).
Meanwhile, an increase in the number of recovery PRNs issued in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period for the previous 12 months indicates that more EfW plants are now becoming R1 compliant (see letsrecycle.com story).
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