GEA and IGA challenge waste oil burning decision

The Independent Garage Association (IGA) director Stuart James and Garage Equipment Association (GEA) chief executive Dave Garratt have agreed to meet Rory Stewart, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs, in early March to discuss concerns related to changes to the guidance for the Environmental Permitting (England & Wales) Regulations 2010.

The changes remove the exemption from the Waste Incineration Directive for Small Waste Oil Burners (SWOBS), and will require users of SWOBS to hold a new permit which carries a £3218 application and annual fees of £1,384. There will also be new monitoring requirements that will further increase costs.

Both James and Garratt believe that that the impact analysis which was carried out did not reflect the current economic model of waste oil collection given the recent dramatic falls in the value of oil.

Stuart James commented: “The revisions to guidance will make it uneconomical to use a SWOB for the purpose it was intended as it significantly increases the costs for small garages. This will inevitably be passed on to consumers through higher labour rates.”

Dave Garratt added: “We do not believe that it is appropriate and proportional to treat a 0.05Mw SWOB in the same way as a 50Mw industrial process. The revised guidance takes no account of the high levels of technology in modern SWOBs which make it far better for the environment to burn waste oil on site than to store and transport it by road to an industrial incinerator.” cja