With Brexit trade agreements still in negotiation, last week The House of Lords’ EU and Environment sub-committee chairman, Lord Teverson, wrote to the Defra Minister, Theresa Coffey, requesting clarity over the post-Brexit arrangements for waste and recycling.
The UK Government have published its plans for Brexit and have outlined its intention to transfer the current environmental EU regulations into UK law. However, depending on the deal that is reached, Brexit has the potential to damage the RDF export market.
Teverson detailed the committee’s main concern that if it becomes more difficult, and therefore expensive, to export waste across Europe then this could result in more waste ending up in UK landfill, being illegally dumped or alternatively ending up in non-EU countries where the waste may not be used as efficiently.
In 2016 Eunomia reported that the European requirements for UK RDF waste would rise as EU members increase their recycling rates, however if the results of Brexit mean that we are no longer able to transport waste to Europe then this could have negative effects on UK export companies. It will also result in European countries having to improve their own internal waste routes.
Following the outcome of Brexit there is however opportunity for the RDF market in the UK to develop its own waste and recycling policy. The current uncertainty may pose a risk to investors of new EfW plants across Europe however there is opportunity on a smaller and more local scale. Andusia is already exploring the UK EfW market and can see a potential for the RDF market transitioning from exporting the waste to large European plants to smaller UK plants.
This is a great prospect for independent aggregators like Andusia, who with a wealth of knowledge about both European and UK EfW markets, will be able to explore these opportunities.