Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) and Reloop have today (3 March) released guidelines for legislating mixed waste sorting (MWS) in the context of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED).
ZWE says the guidelines were developed to clarify the amendment proposed by the European Parliament regarding the use of mixed wastes for renewable energy purposes.
The document recommends applying MWS systems of defined quality to remove fossil-derived materials to ensure that only biogenic waste is used for renewable energy generation.
Mixed waste sorting should be made mandatory for operators that want to sell their energy as renewable.
Following the requirement, the operators would either need to pre-sort the waste on-site or demonstrate that all waste received has undergone sorting prior to it being delivered for incineration.
The guide also recommends setting the following minimum performance criteria for MSW systems:
- For plastics >70%, with non-target materials contributing no more than 10%.
- For steel >80%, with non-target materials contributing no more than 4%.
- For aluminium >60%, with non-target materials contributing no more than 6%.
ZWE and Reloop have also called on the European Council and Parliament to “improve the criteria for mixed wastes” to ensure this would only qualify as a source of renewable energy if it has undergone sorting of defined quality.
Commenting on the new guidance, Janek Vähk, Climate, Energy and Air Pollution Programme coordinator at ZWE, said: “Currently, the ‘biodegradable fraction of mixed waste’ is never, at incineration plants, combusted without there also being large quantities of (often recyclable) fossil-derived materials present.
“Therefore, to ensure that the RED support schemes that don’t allow the burning of fossil materials such as plastics, mixed waste sorting should be made mandatory for operators that want to sell their energy as renewable.”
