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Pollution Control: Incinerators

Volume 457: debated on Wednesday 7 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will issue guidance on the application of the Waste Incineration Directive (WID) to the conversion of a proportion of the burners in a power station to WID compliance with the purpose of burning refuse-derived fuel in those burners only. (124650)

The Waste Incineration Directive (WID) applies to incineration and co-incineration plants and includes those where waste is used as a fuel or is disposed of at a plant where energy generation or production is the main purpose. The WID, therefore, only requires an operator to upgrade those facilities at a power station in which waste is handled to WID standards.

The third edition of DEFRA’s guidance on the application of the Directive on the incineration of waste was published in June 2006. We do not intend to provide specific guidance on the conversion of power station burners to burn only refuse-derived fuel. However, the Environment Agency will be happy to discuss the details with any operator wishing to undertake such a conversion.