Market not ministers is driving future of RDF

摘要

One of the biggest growth subsectors in the waste industry in recent years has been exports of refuse-derived fuel (RDF). So much so that one UK waste manager told MRW it would have gone out of business without the new revenue stream. A Government and business sustain-ability drive to divert material from landfill, combined with a lack of alternative cheap domestic disposal options, led operators to look overseas for alternative destinations for waste. Luckily, countries in northern Europe had an overcapacity of energy-from-waste (EfW) facilities due to a slow-down in their own waste production as an effect of recession.