Latest news from letsrecycle.com about shred and Spread. Please note at Rushcliffe we do not take our green waste where it is 'shredded and Spread' rather it is composted in open windrows. Read on further to find out about the process of 'Shred and Spread'.

Defra clarifies position on ‘shred and spread’ Monday 16 August 2010 Organics News

By Caelia Quinault

Councils will no longer be able to count green waste which is given minimal treatment towards their recycling and composting targets following a clarification by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Shred and spread does not count towards National Indicator 192 At present, some green waste is shredded prior to being spread on land in a practice known as ‘shred and spread'. Many councils have historically counted this towards the National Indicator 192 -household waste reused, recycled and composted. This is one of 192 indicators which monitor local authority performance.

However, all councils were last week (August 12) sent an email from the government's WasteDataFlow service - which records waste statistics - explaining that this is not allowed.

The guidance says:

Defra has received a number of queries as to whether local authorities may claim green waste collected from households and sent for ‘shred and spread' against their National Indicator 192 target.

NI192 defines composting as:

"...the controlled biological decomposition and stabilisation of organic substrates, under conditions that are permanently aerobic and that allow the development of thermophilic temperatures as a result of biologically produced heat. It results in a final product that has been sanitised and stabilised, is high in humic substances and can be used as a soil improver, as an ingredient in growing media, or blended to produce a top soil that will meet British Standard BS 3882, incorporating amendment No 1. In the case of vermicomposting these thermophilic temperatures can be foregone at the point the worms are introduced. "

‘Shred and spread' does not meet this definition, as decomposition is not controlled and the final product is neither sanitised nor stabilised.

In addition, the licensing of such use explicitly acknowledges that the material remains waste, hence it cannot be said to have been recycled.

Defra therefore consider that green waste sent for ‘shred and spread' use should not be classed as recycling or composting for the purposes of reporting against NI192.

Defra added that from Quarter 1 2010/11, 'shred and spread' tonnages should be reported on WasteDataFlow under Question 23 - collected residual waste - or question 65, other treatment method under 'tonnes for recovery', alongside a note explaining they were 'shred and spread'. It said this meant they would be excluded from NI 192 as well as NI193 - municipal waste sent to landfill.

AfOR
Hopefully the clarification has come in the nick of time


Jeremy Jacobs, AfOR The clarification follows more than a year of campaigning by the Association for Organics Recycling (AfOR) whose members have often been undercut by shred and spread operators operating at a much lower margin.

The Association wrote to Defra ministers Caroline Spelman and Lord Henley last month to highlight the issue and have also been in discussions over it with the Environment Agency and WRAP.

AfOR managing director, Jeremy Jacobs, said: "We are delighted with the new guidance. This means that if local authorities want to make use of NI 192 they have to use a bonafide operator as opposed to a farmer who is shredding it and putting it into a field.

"The big issue is that these people have been operating at very low gate fees. A lot of local authorities have been using it as it is significantly cheaper per tonne of green waste being processed and it was distorting the market."

Mr Jacobs explained that composting was a managed process and, unlike shred and spread operations, could ensure a reduction in pathogens, contamination such as plastics and produce a quality product at the end.

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AfOR
He said: "In some parts of the country this issue has nearly put some of my members out of business. Hopefully the clarification has come in the nick of time."