Why is it Difficult to Create Criteria for End of Biowaste?

Defra is trying to develop a pan-European end of waste criteria for biodegradable waste, in which environmental experts can universally say when a product like compost or digestate is of a high enough quality to no longer be considered waste. However, according to Richard Parsons, the head of Defra’s anaerobic digestion team, creating this criteria is proving to be “harder than expected”.

Last week, Parsons spoke at the REA’s Organics Recycling Group’s annual conference in Oxfordshire, entitled ‘Organics recycling: a new dawn’, in which he gave an update on the end of waste criteria for biodegradable waste which is being developed by the European Commission. In response to a question from the REA’s technical director Jeremy Jacobs, who asked what the odds of the criteria being agreed were, Parsons said that it was uncertain whether it could come into force.

He noted, ‘The Commission is finding this harder than expected and they also have resource issues and priorities they will address. How much more effort they will put into it if it is still problematic could be called into question.’ Parsons explained that the timetable for the publication of the criteria has been pushed back further, and further changes have also been made. Following a meeting with the Joint Research Committee (JRC) at the end of February, the previously-expected publication date of late 2013 was altered, with a fourth working document to be drafted in the summer, not to be published until 2014.

Defra has made other changes, such as excluding compost-like outputs from mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facilities and sewage sludge. Though these materials had been included in the third working document for the criteria which was published in August 2012, Mr Parsons explained in his presentation, ‘The JRC has reverted back to the idea of source separated inputs meaning MBT output and sewage sludges are outside the scope but there is potential for member states to develop their own national standards which could sit alongside the EU end of waste criteria.’

Here in the UK, we have already developed our own end of waste criteria, known as the Quality Protocols, which are backed up by standards PAS 100 for compost and PAS 110 for digestate. However, the new, pan-European criteria would supersede anything the UK has previously done, but Parsons commented that if it does come into force, the European criteria needs to be ‘workable and appropriate and doesn’t undermine the significant investment that we have had to do in developing our own UK markets.’