Ireland: The Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted a licence to CRH subsidiary Irish Cement for the incineration of refuse-derived fuel (RDF), including tyres, plastics and animal tissues at its 1.0Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Mungret, County Limerick. The Limerick Leader has reported that it will be the second of Irish Cement’s two plants to transition from fossil fuels, after its Platin plant in Meath. The company has said that the intended upgrade is vital to the plant’s future and will create security for its 80 employees, in addition to generating 60 jobs throughout the course of its installation. 4500 people supported Limerick Against Pollution (LAP) in lobbying the EPA against granting its permission following the decision of the Irish planning appeals board An Bord Pleanála in favour of the installation. LAP has 28 days in which to appeal the EPA’s ruling. A protest march will take place in the city of Limerick in October 2019.

The company’s 2009 incineration licence for its Limerick plant expired due to inactivity. It announced its renewed intention for RDF usage at the plant in December 2015.

Egypt: The New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) of the Egyptian Ministry of Housing (MoH) has engaged BESIX and Oracom Construction for the establishment of a refuse-derived fuel (RDF) processing plant in Cairo. Mubasher has reported that Minister of Housing Assem El-Gazzar has stated that when operational the facility will provide 0.7Mt/yr fuel for cement plants.

Thailand: Siam Cement has engaged the US-based Dow to conduct a study of types of waste plastic suitable for sorting. Dow’s chief executive officer (CEO) Jim Fitterling has estimated that locally sourced pre-used plastics can supply a commercial renewable feedstock operation at a rate of 0.2 – 0.3Mt/yr. The Bangkok Post has reported that the scale on which the two companies would seek to expand any operations depend on volumes of available waste. Nikkei has reported that Thailand generates 1.03Mt/yr of plastic, over 3% of which passes into the World’s oceans.

Sweden: Geminor has been granted permission to operate freight by rail to and from its unit at Landskrona following a three-year application period. The plant processes more than 40,000t/yr of solid-recovered fuel (SRF), refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and waste wood

“We still have a long way to go in relation to transporting waste on rails in Europe,” said Country Manager Sweden at Geminor, Per Mernelius. He added that rail transport is still a ‘novelty’ in the waste processing industry with potential in the future.