10 March 2010

PAS 110 Quality Protocol Allows AD Producers to Make Digestate as a Product - Not a Waste Material

The new PAS110 protocol is good news for those Anaerobic Digestion Plant operators that utilize a solely green waste (eg source segregated garden waste) feed source because UK regulators have been confirming this month that within a set of specific criteria they will not apply formal waste regulatory controls to these digestates.

This is great news.

It means that it is then much easier to use this material as for example a fertilizer, and spread it on land. When any material is designated as a waste, it is not only the additional burden of the regulatory measures themselves which are essential for compliance with the Waste Regulations. It is also the cost of additional record keeping and monitoring, plus the Waste License fees, which are a big negative for potential users and sellers as well.

Thumbnail for the PAS110 standard document.


PAS110 is known as the Quality Protocol for Anaerobic Digestate and it was published in its final form January 2009. In the last few weeks it has received approval by the European Commission.

This reclassification of this type of digestate as a product and not a waste, will no doubt prompt a new generation of biogas digesters of the best kind, using green waste biomass rather than food crops.

The BSI PAS 110 safety standard is however, not entirely free of constraints and there are costs in the necessary monitoring required by the standard to assure the high quality of digestate produced from these biogas digesters.

See also our plea for Fertiliser Regulations to include digestate fertiliser here.

More information is available at:

The WRAP Anaerobic Digestion PAS110 Guide download page

SEPA Waste regulation web site (Scotland)

Let's Recycle's Anaerobic Digestion page (scroll to the bottom)

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