What’s on ADBA’s wishlist for 2019?

ADBA Chief Executive Charlotte Morton recently set out ADBA's three key wishes for 2019 in MRW (Materials Recycling World) Magazine:

Universal food waste collections in England

With Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already having such collections and seeing an increase in recycling rates as a result, it is high time that England caught up. Only a third of all households in England have food waste recycling facilities.

It is also imperative that local authorities are given the financial means to roll out these services – higher taxes on single-use plastics and/or incineration could provide a solution here.

Renewable heat support beyond 2021 

While the restoration of higher tariffs and the introduction of tariff guarantees for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was a welcome development in 2018, there is currently no support guaranteed beyond 2021. This risks creating a valley of death for investment in low-carbon heat at the very time when there is mounting pressure on the Government to ramp up the pace of decarbonisation.

Serious investment in bioenergy R&D 

The anaerobic digestion (AD) industry has the potential to meet 30% of domestic energy demand and reduce the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions by 5%, but achieving this potential will continue to be challenging until AD becomes cost-competitive against other renewable technologies.

With targeted government investment, we could transform the economics of the industry and put it at the cutting edge of UK bioscience, opening up post-Brexit export opportunities in the process.

We'll be continuing to push for action on the above issues in collaboration with our members throughout 2019 and beyond.