UK – Defra Committee takes the lead in encouraging innovation in waste management

A programme of support measures for new and emerging waste management technologies is to be implemented this year by a new Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) committee, set up specifically to fund R&D and demonstration projects in support of technology and processes to reduce and divert biological municipal waste (BMW) from landfill.



The New Technologies Advisory Committee (incidentally, RRF member Prof Ed Stentiford from Leeds University is a member of this Committee) is tasked with developing a framework for delivering £32m of funding to encourage innovation in the field of waste management technology. The aim is to stimulate R&D into new technologies for BMW and to support demonstrator projects that will help to establish the technical and commercial viability of emerging and near-market technologies. As a result, the programme will also address other key barriers such as perception issues and industry inertia.



Chaired by Peter Calliafas, Head of the Environmental Services Team at Barclays Bank plc, the Committee will receive and vet applications for funding under the New Technologies Programme and pass its recommendations to Defra.



Part of Defra’s Waste Implementation Programme, the New Technologies work covers four key areas, including the two funding programmes which will be announced in January 2004. Allocated around £2m, the Waste Research & Innovation Programme will address the current lack of funding for R&D projects into new technologies to deal with BMW. On a much larger scale, the Demonstrator Programme will provide around £30m to help to establish new waste treatment technologies that require pilot plants to demonstrate their viability. It is designed to reduce the perceived risk of implementing new technologies that are unproven in the UK and provide accurate technical and economic data.



To inform the work of the Committee, the views of all the major stakeholders in the waste management sector were explored at a recent Defra workshop. Bringing together representatives from the public, private, community, NGO and financial sectors, the aim of the consultation exercise was to help shape the focus and delivery of the two funding programmes. As well as discussing which technologies can be classed as new? delegates were also asked to discuss and rank the criteria by which applications for funding should be selected.



Applications for R&D funding will be accepted until the funding is fully allocated, but for the Demonstrator Programme, two bidding rounds will be held, the first running from 1st March to 31st May 2004, and the second from 1st September to 30th November. The aim is to have five demonstration plants in operation by the end of 2005 and a further five by the end of 2006.



Notes



The other two areas of work under the New Technologies Programme is a Data Centre that will bring together current data and research on new and emerging technologies and also the results of the R&D and Demonstrator projects selected for funding. In addition, a Support Programme is being set up to ensure that these results are widely and effectively disseminated to all the relevant stakeholders.



The Defra workshop consultation highlighted a number of technologies that should be considered, including various types of MBT (mechanical biological treatment), steam treatment, advanced thermal treatment (e.g. pyrolysis and gasification), and anaerobic digestion. Key factors that must be reflected in the selection criteria, particularly for the demonstrator programme, were identified as: BMW tonnages diverted value for money bankability environmental impact delivery timeframe planning political/social acceptability Other significant issues raised at the workshops included the need to work with willing industry, local authority and community sector partners to ensure delivery within the required timescales, wide dissemination of the results and clear<