Viridor disappointed by Environment Agency U-Turn

Posted 3 Oct 2011

Viridor has issued a critical response after, in a last minute u-turn on previous advice, the Environment Agency (EA) announced last week that there would be an extension for those moving from a composting Exemption Permit to an Environmental Permit.

The transition, which affects those operating under a Paragraph 12 Exemption, has for the last two years been clearly prescribed as taking place on October 1 2011, with no leniency for those that missed that date.

Bill Griffiths, Viridor’s National Organics & Recycling Manager, said: “Viridor is disappointed in the Environment Agency’s last minute extension of the transition date from the Paragraph 12 composting Exemption to Environmental Permit.

“Viridor has invested much time, effort and money in the last two years to bring our small scale, on-farm composters up to speed with the new Permitting requirements which, until Wednesday (28 September), were due to come into force on 1 October 2011.”

The EA has stated until now that those not wishing to apply for the new permit must cease operations, and that the date was firmly set for 1 October 2011.

Mr Griffiths continued: “In a number of cases, on-farm sites have been shut down because they either did not meet the requirements of a Standard Permit or were too small scale to be viable to operate under an Environmental Permit. This has led to loss of revenue for these composters and increased costs for Viridor through diverting green waste over a greater distance to permitted compost sites with full Environmental controls and regulatory responsibilities.

“The EA has potentially created a discrepancy in gate fees and unfair competition during this extended transition period between those composters operating with, and those operating without, an Environmental Permit.

“It appears that once again, professional operators that have behaved responsibly to develop and invest in compliant infrastructure within EA stated timescales, have found the goal posts moved 48 hours before the transition deadline, becoming commercially disadvantaged as a result.”

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