International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

throughout Europe. In addition, some MS also produce around 1.4 million tonnes of
compost from sewage sludge and a similar amount of compost from mixed waste.
Due to a general lack of consistently reported data on organic waste arisings, the
potentially-recoverable organic waste calculation is based on 150 kg per inhabitant
per year and includes source-separated kitchen and garden waste from households,
park and garden waste from public estates and industrial wastes. This figure appears
to be realistic given the amounts already collected in well-established biowaste
management systems such as Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, though
particularly for parks and non-household garden waste, data is not sufficient to be
able to say with any certainty the amount of this collected waste that will end up in
composting/AD facilities.
Table 36-2 illustrates how effectively the EU MSs separately collect the available
organic fraction of their national waste arisings for recycling purposes; the
Netherlands exceeds their potential according to the 150 kg per inhabitant per year
calculation, and Austria, Germany, Denmark, Finland and Luxembourg are all
relatively successful in terms of reaching their potential. These countries all have
reasonably well-developed compost/AD industries with statutory regulations
surrounding compost production; in addition, all except Denmark and Finland also
have a QAS to support the statutory framework. It should be noted that Denmark,
Finland and the Netherlands owe a large proportion of their success to extensive
garden waste collection and composting.
The success of minimum compost standards can also be measured by examining
whether any perception issues related to the use of compost have arisen in the enduser
markets for BTPs. The end-user market shares for compost (Table 36-3)
illustrate that a notable portion of compost is used in the higher-price markets such
as horticulture and greenhouse production, illustrating confidence of the market in
the product. In addition, Table 36-3 illustrates the dominant use of compost in
agriculture across the EU. Hogg et al. (2008) 705 recently acquired information on
perception issues related to use of BTPs in the agricultural sector via a series of
questionnaires sent to national experts across the EU. In those countries with mature
composting markets and a solid statutory compost quality base, perception issues
have been minimal both from the perspective of the farmer and of the householder.
For example, in Austria, householders have taken a very positive approach to organics
recycling, and open discussions between the Ministry and Chamber of Agriculture on
heavy metal and nutrient loads in agricultural soils have ensured that the market has
confidence in the thresholds that have been set. Following introduction of the ABPR,
farmers were actually offended at the implied need for additional requirements,
particularly as a large amount of composting takes place on-farm in Austria, with
farmers sometimes also being involved in the collection of household biowaste for
their facilities.
705 D. Hogg, D. Lister, J. Barth, E. Favoino and F. Amlinger (2009) Frameworks for Use of Compost in
Agriculture in Europe, Final report for WRAP, January 2009
http://www.wrap.org.uk/downloads/Eunomia_compost_in_agriculture_final_report.703534d2.6993.
pdf .
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