Resources going to waste due to lack of data

Up to 15 million tonnes of waste a year will go to landfill in the UK and Ireland in 2020 instead of being recovered, according to a new report.

The study from the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) blames a potential infrastructure gap, which would preclude the material being used as resource or to generate energy.

CIWM says commercial and industrial (C&I) waste remained the “known unknown” of the waste industry, with existing C&I datasets inadequate for the planning of waste management infrastructure. Better quality data is required to encourage investors to fund sufficient infrastructure, says the report.

“It is clear that available C&I waste data are insufficient to support strong business cases for new facilities. Uncertainties in forecasts of waste feedstocks undermine confidence in planning and financing of additional waste treatment infrastructure,” it states.

The report notes that, although some waste management firms have invested significantly in collecting data, many businesses and local authorities have not.

CIWM looked at projections for commercial and industrial waste arisings in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland. It concluded that, by 2020, they would fall overall by just 0.2%.

The institution also found that England is likely to generate more commercial and industrial waste by the end of the decade – rising from 47.9 million tonnes in 2013 to 48.3 million tonnes in 2020.