Minister brushes aside recycling sector's urgent plea

Minister Cramer is not responding to the urgent plea for assistance that the recycling sector, together with the Recycling Network, jointly addressed to her in their urgent letter last September (see also the news article on this). There is a growing threat that more and more easily recyclable waste will end up in incinerators due to the overcapacity of incinerators. And that goes against the environmental goals we all share.

According to Cramer, there is no question of overcapacity in the market, she writes in a letter back to the BRBS, one of the trade organisations in the recycling sector. In fact, in her view, there is a balance between incineration capacity and the supply of combustible residual waste. She therefore considers any further expansion of capacity unacceptable and wants to agree on a moratorium with the waste incineration sector. Furthermore, she states in the letter, reusable waste materials are not being unnecessarily incinerated in our country. In support of this, she points to a study by the VROM Inspectorate conducted last summer among seven of the eleven incinerators in total.

Imbalance

Conversely, the recycling sector and the environmental movement see that the market for waste incineration has become completely unbalanced over the past year. Incineration capacity continues to increase, while the economic recession is causing the volume of waste to decrease. This leads to falling rates, partly because incinerators have contractual obligations to supply energy. In recent months, public tenders have seen the rate almost halved to a level below 60 euros per tonne. Within the waste sector and the environmental movement, there are very serious doubts as to whether the price currently shaping the market is a realistic one, and there is great concern about the environmental consequences. Compared to incineration, recycling makes a three times higher contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases. In addition, increasingly scarce raw materials are preserved, which would otherwise go up in smoke.

Minister Cramer is not responding to the urgent plea for assistance that the recycling sector, together with the Recycling Network, jointly addressed to her in their urgent letter last September (see also the news article on this). There is a growing threat that more and more easily recyclable waste will end up in incinerators due to the overcapacity of incinerators. And that goes against the environmental goals we all share.

According to Cramer, there is no question of overcapacity in the market, she writes in a letter back to the BRBS, one of the trade organisations in the recycling sector. In fact, in her view, there is a balance between incineration capacity and the supply of combustible residual waste. She therefore considers any further expansion of capacity unacceptable and wants to agree on a moratorium with the waste incineration sector. Furthermore, she states in the letter, reusable waste materials are not being unnecessarily incinerated in our country. In support of this, she points to a study by the VROM Inspectorate conducted last summer among seven of the eleven incinerators in total.

Imbalance

The recycling sector and the environmental movement see that the market for waste incineration has become completely unbalanced over the past year. Incineration capacity continues to increase, while the economic recession is causing the volume of waste to decrease. This leads to falling rates, partly because incinerators have contractual obligations to supply energy. In recent months, public tenders have seen the rate almost halved to a level below 60 euros per tonne. Within the waste sector and the environmental movement, there are very serious doubts as to whether the price currently shaping the market is a realistic one, and there is great concern about the environmental consequences. Compared to incineration, recycling makes a three times higher contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases. In addition, increasingly scarce raw materials are preserved, which would otherwise go up in smoke.