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Joint ADBA & REA survey about spare AD capacity to take additional feedstocks in the UK
The Environment Agency has recently approached the trade associations to flag that some new feedstocks may become available to IVC and AD facilities as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak over the next few weeks.
For example, a number of trout farms are losing their market for wet fish and more significantly for the stocking or recreational fisheries. They may need to dispose of these residues/wastes.
Also, you may have heard that some dairy farmers face disrupted milk collections and currently need to store, dispose of, or spread waste milk to land as a result of outcomes caused by COVID-19. This waste could potentially go to AD plants. This was on the news recently. We have also heard there are potato waste arisings and there may be more in the future.
The scale of the issue is unclear as yet and we will find out more in due course, but to understand if these feedstocks can be directed to the AD industry we need your help to identify which plants could take this waste and how much.
In parallel, we are in discussions with Ofgem on how the procedures to approve new feedstocks at AD plants (e.g. the FMS protocol) can be made smoother and enable plants to take these wastes when they become available.
A key aim of our survey is to connect AD operators who have spare capacity with farmers and other food/drinks supply chain organisations with waste arisings. Another important aim is to identify areas where there is spare AD capacity so that we can assist Defra, the regulators and the industries with suitable biodegradable waste arisings to get them digested rather than undergo other types of recovery lower down the waste hierarchy.