Waste aggregator Andusia director Steve Burton says the market for UK waste exports is bouncing back after two years of disruption from Brexit and Covid.
Burton spoke after the latest figures from England’s Environment Agency showed Andusia had overtaken Norway-based Geminor as the largest exporter of waste in the first two months of this year.
In January and February the figures revealed Andusia shipped 36,226 tonnes to take the top spot. Germinor managed 33,547t as the second-largest exporter having slipped off the top spot and the podium was completed by Bertling Enviro, which handled 31,447t. N&P came in fourth place dealing with 21,227t.
Burton told EWB: “Clearly we are delighted with the position, and we have a very strong order book for the year ahead. We are seeing a lot of supply demand as well as offtake demand, and a number of suppliers are now refurbishing balers or purchasing new balers, so the market is seeing exports are still significant for the medium term ahead.”
Overall the figures showed 218,706t was shipped from the UK, indicating levels were at least staying level with last year, during which the first seven months showed about 748,800t were exported from England.
Geminor also reported last year that it would see a “decline in overall export market size” from the UK. It forecast the UK’s exports dropping to between 1.2 and 1.5 million tonnes a year by 2021-22 and “then plateau at this level”.
As well as the much publicised issues caused by Covid and Brexit, waste exporters have also had to deal with issues such as taxes in the Netherlands, Sweden and most recently Norway.
Waste exports were as high as 3.2Mt during 2018, although figures showed that even back then the market was slowing after several years of strong growth.
Geminor then confirmed in 2020 that there had been a significant drop in exports through 2019, even before the full impact of Covid and Brexit had been felt.
