Shanks Group has welcomed the decision by the Environment Agency to grant it permission in principle to become the first UK waste management firm to export refuse derived fuel to recovery facilities on mainland Europe.

Letsrecycle.com reports that Shanks said it was undertaking the export of RDF to Europe due to an over-capacity of recovery facilities in the continent Shanks said it was undertaking the export of RDF to Europe due to an over-capacity of recovery facilities in the continent The company has received approval to export 40,000 tonnes of material within the next 12 months to be used as a feedstock by energy recovery facilities in the Netherlands and Germany. Refused-derived fuel (RDF) - or solid recovered fuel (SRF) - occurs as a by-product of its mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facilities.

Shanks pointed to the existing high demand for the RDF on the continent as one of the drivers for the move and also the reclassification of some waste treatment facilities under the Waste Framework Directive, which has seen the classification of some facilities within the waste hierarchy raised from disposal to recovery.

The shipment of waste material for disposal abroad is illegal under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007.
Shipment of the material to the Netherlands is set to take place "in the coming weeks", with Shanks currently finalising logistical arrangements with outlets in the country. The spokesman added that there was potential for the amount of RDF exported to increase over time.

The Environment Agency confirmed that the arrangement was the first of its kind in the UK, and stressed that energy recovery of fuel "is not dumping", while exporting waste overseas to be landfilled remains illegal.