A report commissioned by CIWM suggests that there will be insufficient infrastructure to deal with commercial and industrial waste by 2020.
Written by Ricardo-AEA, the report suggests that in the UK and Ireland, 58 million tonnes of commercial and industrial (C&I) waste will be produced in 2013 and that this will largely remain at the same level by 2020.
However, in terms of the circa 54 million tonnes of waste facility capacity known to be operational or under development, only 75 per cent (40.6 million tonnes) over the next decade.
Once plant closures are taken into account, this falls to 38 million tonnes by 2023.
The report also shows that the lack of accurate data on C&I waste is creating uncertainty in terms of developing infrastructure.
New CIWM president David Beadle said: “The report highlights just how inadequate the data is and throws into stark relief how poorly informed we are as a sector to make robust, strategic decisions about the future planning and delivery of waste infrastructure.“
He added that this situation coupled with inadequate mechanisms to support larger than local planning and the impact on investment opportunities posed by feedstock uncertainty are major challenges for C&I waste.
David Beadle also called on the industry to work together to address these challenges and said that CIWM will be putting its weight behind electronic duty of care as a valuable tool for data collection in the future and will also take a lead in developing best practice to ensure a more consistent to forecasting.
CIWM will also support UK and Irish governments in bringing interested industry together with investors and other stakeholders to encourage better understanding and market confidence.
