Operations & enforcement
What is refuse-derived fuel (RDF)?
Refuse-derived fuel is residual waste processed into a fuel — shredded, dried and with recyclable and non-combustible material removed — so it can be burned for energy in facilities built for it.
It is produced to a specification rather than simply being what is left over. Calorific value, moisture and chlorine content all matter to the facility receiving it, and material outside specification gets rejected.
Its economics depend on the gate fee at the destination versus the cost of processing and transport, which has historically included export. That makes it sensitive to things well outside a waste operator's control.
For a collector it is the destination for what cannot be recycled, so the volume going to it is a direct readout of how well segregation upstream is working.
What goes wrong in practice
- Produced without reference to the receiving facility's specification, leading to rejection.
- Treated as a recycling outlet in reporting.
- Volumes rising without anyone asking what changed in the incoming streams.