The UK Government has three weeks to avoid a major set back in the use of renewable fuels, caused by its current plans to implement the EU Waste Incineration Directive. The plans would also lumber the agricultural industry with a significant, but completely unnecessary, cost.

NFU Scotland and the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers have been joined by their UK counterparts in a final push to convince the UK Government not to prohibit the burning of animal fat (tallow) as an environmentally-friendly fuel. The UK is one of the few remaining EU countries still planning to ban tallow as a fuel from the end of the year under the EU’s Waste Incineration Directive.

Rendered tallow currently fuels boilers in slaughterhouses and rendering plants. As a fuel, it has much lower emissions than oil. The Directive will come into force on 28 December 2005 and, if implemented in full, would classify tallow as a waste product which could only be burnt in incinerators which meet strict requirements. The cost of upgrading boilers to meet the terms of the Directive makes conversion impractical. Therefore, in three weeks, tallow will no longer be a green fuel, rather a waste product with a disposal cost that would have to be borne by the industry. Plants would have to revert to burning heavy oil.

The industry has convinced the European Commission of the problem, however Brussels has only committed to reviewing the legislation, not amending it prior to implementation. That review could last two years.

Up to 22 of the 25 EU member states have agreed that tallow can continue to be used as fuel. UK farming unions, meat wholesalers and the renderers’ association are urging the UK Government to follow suit.

NFUS President John Kinnaird said:

“The current UK Government position flies in the face of commitments not to goldplate EU legislation. Bizarrely, if this decision goes ahead, we will see rendering plants switching from burning renewable fuel to burning oil just two weeks after Government announced its plans to encourage the country to do exactly the opposite.

“I am still hopeful that common sense will win the day. We have lobbied hard in Brussels to get a change at EU level, but it has become clear from those visits that this can now be resolved at member state level; an option that virtually all other EU countries have now taken up.

“We have written to the Secretary of State asking her to allow the use of tallow as a green fuel until the EU study and review of legislation is complete. Nothing less will do.”

President of the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers, Isla Roebuck, said:

“We understand that up to 22 other countries have concluded that this aspect of the Directive should not be implemented. As it stands, the UK red meat industry is going to be put at a damaging competitive disadvantage.

“To lose thousands of tonnes of green fuel and replace it with heavy oil is a real environmental own goal. It will add significant cost to the rendering sector, which will have have to be borne by the wider industry. It is within Mrs Beckett’s power to address this issue and the whole UK red meat industry is united in asking her to do so.”

NOTE: The letter to Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs, Margaret Beckett, was sent jointly by NFU Scotland, Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers, NFU England and Wales, Ulster Farmers’ Union, Northern Ireland Meat Exporters Association and British Meat Processors Association.

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