News: Weibold Academy

The best available technology (BAT) is the technology approved by legislators or regulators for meeting output standards for a particular process. BAT for a given industrial sector is described in reference documents called BREFs (Best Available Techniques Reference documents). BREFs are the result of an exchange of information between European Union Member States, the industries concerned, non-governmental organizations promoting environmental protection and the European Commission. This exchange of information is referred to as the Sevilla process because it is steered within the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the European Commissions' Joint Research Centre, which is based in Seville. The process is codified into law by Commission Implementing Decisions. The most important chapter of the BREFs, the BAT conclusions, are published as implementing decisions of the European Commission in the Official Journal of the European Union. According to the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), the BAT conclusions shall be the reference for setting permit conditions of (large) industrial installations.

Chemical recycling is an emerging theme in waste management which has the potential to contribute to a low carbon, resource efficient and sustainable economy. In enabling the use of carbonaceous waste as secondary carbon feedstock to replace fossil resources to produce organic chemicals, it could support efforts to transit carbon intensive industries from the linear to a circular carbon economy. A sustainable society with climate-neutral processes requires significant adjustments in the value chains, which are only possible through innovations. In the “Waste4Future” lighthouse project, seven institutions of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Germany) are pooling their expertise to develop new solutions for this goal, from the raw material basis to material flows and process engineering to the end of a product’s life cycle. They aim to increase energy and resource efficiency when using plastics and thus pave the way for a chemical industry that requires fewer fossil raw materials and causes fewer emissions.

To harmonise enforcement in each EU Member State and check the current level of compliance regarding obligations imposed on industry by the REACH, CLP and PIC regulations, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) installed a forum which coordinates various enforcement projects. One of the main projects are the REACH-EN-FORCE (REF) projects. The REF-projects are carried out by inspectors based in the national authorities in the participating Member States. The resulting information is collected by ECHA and the Forum Working Group. A final report on the findings of the REF-project is then produced. Ultimately, the goal of the REF-projects is to improve the quality of enforcement in the Member States but also to improve the compliance of registrants with the REACH, CLP, and PIC regulations.

Decarbonizing the industrial sector including waste treatment is one of our great challenges. Decarbonisation is needed at greater speed and scale if companies are to remain compliant, viable and profitable. But deciding which pathways to adopt can be challenging. One of the main challenges is the trilemma of energy needing to be secure, affordable, and low carbon. These parameters need to be managed in unison, despite the volatility in prices, policy and supply.

Since their launch in 2015, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 169 timebound targets underpinning them have provided all stakeholders – the private sector included – with a lens through which to translate global needs and ambitions into business solutions. Companies and sectors that apply their creativity and innovation to develop these solutions will be able to better manage risks, anticipate consumer demand, capture growth markets, and strengthen supply chains in line with the sustainability needs outlined by the SDGs.

The chemical recycling of end-of-life tires (ELT) via state-of-the-art pyrolysis technologies does not only avoid greenhouse gas emissions compared to today’s conventional production processes, but it also increases the resource efficiency while closing the loop in the transition to a circular economy. However, civil organisations criticise the production of fuel through chemical recycling, sometimes mutilate the terminology, pointing to the associated environmental impacts, while they overlook the fact that modern ELT pyrolysis concepts are not geared towards the production of "fuels" (which, by the way, should not be defined as "recycling" but rather as less preferred "recovery" according to the EU waste hierarchy).

Environmental and social awareness is becoming the key element of the sustainable tire industry. End-of-life tires (ELTs) are one of the most abundant as well as the most attractive waste from an economic point of view. More than 30 million tons ELTs are generated worldwide annually (WBCSD, 2019) and this waste stream is growing dynamically.

Currently rubber recycled from end-of-life tires (ELTs) was ranked 3rd among the most suitable candidate streams for which to develop further EU-wide end-of-waste (EoW) criteria in the European Commission JRC’s report. The European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ association (ETRMA) and the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC) are pleased about this prioritization exercise, although they are right to wonder why there is no date on the horizon. The 3rd place (after Plastic and Textiles) is still worth a medal, nevertheless. Considering the enormous potential of chemical recycling (pyrolysis) of ELTs, the (very) few missing points could have been made up (author's opinion) and a time horizon might be foreseeable.

Carbon pricing is a policy tool that governments can use as part of their broader climate strategy. A price is placed on greenhouse gas emissions, which creates a financial incentive to reduce those emissions or enhance removals. By incorporating climate change costs into economic decision-making, carbon pricing can help encourage changes in production, consumption, and investment patterns, thereby underpinning low-carbon growth.