Kitchen scraps, grass clippings can aid EU energy security
LEIGH PHILLIPS
03.12.2008 @ 17:43 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Kitchen scraps, garden cuttings and other organic waste are not just of interest to gardeners using compost to fertilise their backyard runner beans.
The European Union is now set to turn its regulatory eye on those bits of our rubbish that smell the worst and even contribute to global warming - but also have great potential for renewable energy.
Organic waste need not be thrown out, but can be turned into compost or energy (Photo: wikipedia)
In an initial document laying out what the European Commission is thinking about "bio-waste," the EU executive says it is mulling over the possibility of ensuring all member states have collection schemes up and running so that the banana peels and egg shells are separated from the used newspapers and milk jugs.
This could then be followed by municipal composting, treatment and then incineration to produce energy.
The document is just a "green paper," a dossier that lays out a range of different options and the commission's initial thinking on a subject. Any legislation is still a long way off.
Each year, the EU produces an estimated 75 million to 100 million tonnes of food and garden waste. According to the European Compost Network, around 35 percent of bio-waste is presently separately collected.
This includes any biodegradable garden and park cuttings, food and kitchen scraps from households and restaurants, and waste from food processing plants.
Together, this makes up a third of all municipal waste in Europe, which presents a real threat, as it not only fills up rubbish dumps but when disposed of in landfills, it breaks down producing methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times as potent as carbon dioxide.
Methane from landfills accounted for some 3 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU-15 in 1995, the latest date for which there are figures.
The EU already has a law on landfills, aiming to address greenhouse gases escaping from them, but such sites are still the most common method for disposing of municipal waste in the enlarged EU.
Landfill shame
This is not only a problem, but a shame, believes the commission, as this could very easily be turned into a source of renewable energy and go from being a climate and waste problem to a climate solution.
"More efforts are needed to ensure that less goes to landfills and there is a high level of energy recovery and recycling," the commission said upon the publication of the green paper.
However, the different EU countries have wildly different national policies when it comes to bio-waste. Organic waste collection for recycling is supported in Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Flanders in Belgium, Catalonia in Spain and northern Italy. The Czech Republic, Denmark and France meanwhile focus on composting garden waste but leave kitchen scraps to be collected along with the rest of the rubbish.
Germany and Austria have the highest composting rates in the EU. New member states, on the other hand, still largely just dump bio-waste in landfills.
"The EU needs to become a resource-efficient, recycling society and bio-waste offers great opportunities," said environment commissioner Stavros Dimas.
"Energy recovered from bio-waste in the form of biogas or thermal energy will help in the fight against climate change, and quality compost can contribute greatly to healthy soil and biodiversity," he added.
The Association for Organics Recycling, the UK-based group formerly known as the Composting Association and a backer of greater support for bio-waste recycling, welcomed the discussion paper. The group's head, Jeremy Jacobs, said he was happy in particular with the document's "acknowledgement that the many and varied benefits associated with different bio-waste management options, healthy soils and biodiversity benefits are as important as the energy recovery opportunities."
Stop wasting food
Separately from the question of recycling, composting and energy production, the green paper also notes that people should stop wasting food. UK research estimates that 6.7 million tonnes of food are wasted by households each year in Britain alone.
Prevention of this waste could save at least 15 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, notes the commission, which also suggests that the strengthening of waste prevention policies across the EU may be necessary.
"There are no easy administrative solutions however," concludes the document, as this would entail changing consumer behaviour and how retailers encourage people to consume.