Organic waste treatment in Norway

1. Introduction and organic waste situation

General

In Norway the source separation of biowaste started in the 1990s motivated by a landfill ban and a state tax on end disposal of waste. The landfill ban for easy degradable organic waste was first proposed by the authorities in a report to the Parliament in 1992, but a country wide ban was not effective until 2001. A specific final disposal tax was introduced in 1999 and its amount is argued as being the socio-economic costs for landfilling not covered by regular landfill fees. A similar tax was imposed on incineration, and in this case energy recovery is credits. The landfill tax was set to NOK 300 and index regulated. In 1996 regulations concerning fertilisers and soil improvers, etc. was introduced with special regulations for products based on organic waste.

These measures have motivated many of the municipalities to include biological waste treatment in their waste management plans. Today most regions either have introduced source separation of biowaste or they incinerate the biowaste together with other residual waste from households. Only a few municipalities, among them the Stavanger region, are combining source separation of biowaste with residual waste incineration.

Source separation

Source separation of biowaste has been introduced for 68 % of the population (3,2 mio) and about 171 000 tonnes, an average of 53,4 kg/source separating inhabitant, were collected (2009). Biowaste in Norway consists in most regions of 90 - 100 % kitchen waste, including kitchen waste of animal origin. Only 5 % of the population have a collection system for garden waste, among the rest many may deliver it at the local recycling station. About 151 000 tonnes of garden waste from households was registered in 2009.

Home composting
Many municipalities allow their citizens to compost their own organic waste in home composters. In return for not having to collect the waste, the municipality normally grants the household a reduction in the waste collection fee and/or a reduced price for certified compost bins and other subsidies. The Nordic Ecolabelling has set up criteria for compost bins (see below). According to the national statistics about 1 % of the population home compost their kitchen waste in Norway.

Centralised biological treatment
According to national statistics 62 centralised biological plants treated 455 000 tonnes of organic waste (including sewage slugde treated off site and amendment) in 2008. Composting is still the predominating technology, only 62 000 tonnes were treated in anaerobic digestion plants . Among the aerobic treatment plants, the majority of the plants are small plants operating in open facilities, using turned windrows or static piles. Approximately 10 plants have closed, in vessel technology. The largest plant, situated outside Stavanger, has a design treatment capacity of 28 000 t/a.

Use of compost and digestate
According to a survey 40 % of the produced compost was used in private gardens (2000). The green sector including earth production, parks and construction, represented a rising trend with 33 % of the produced compost. Only 17 % was used in agriculture with organic farming representing 4 %. Despite the old data the present picture is believed to be somewhat similar. The reason for the low utilization in agriculture is believed to be a combination of little demand for soil improvers in several regions in Norway and high developed compost product development aimed at the green sector.

The biogas plants until recently have produced a compost from the digestate. Recently several initiatives aims at distributing the digestate undewatered directly to the farmers. This requires a logistical system that pays the surrounding farmers for the storage of liquid digestate until the time for spreading. First results are promising in regards to farmer satisfaction.

2. Legal framework for the organic waste stream and the compost production

Regulations concerning organic fertiliseres and soil improvers etc.
Compost, sewage sludge, digestate and manure is since 2003 regulated together in a regulation for organic fertilizers. The regulation is basically product oriented and all products must be registered before they can be traded. Demands are set up for a quality assurance system to ensure the compliance with the regulations. Product quality demands are set up for heavy metals and other toxic substances, hygienic parameters, impurities etc.

Table 1. Quality classes and user restrictions

3. Contacts and source of information

Avfall Norge - Waste Management Norway

Mr. Henrik Lystad
Nedre Vollgt. 3
N-0158 Oslo, Norway

Tel.: +47/24 14 66 00
Fax.: +47/24 14 66 01

E-mail:
Internet: www.avfallnorge.no

Statistics Norway (Statistisk Sentralbyrå)

www.ssb.no

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet)

Felles postmottak
Postboks 383
N-2381 Brumunddal

Tel +47/ 23 21 68 00
Fax +47/ 23 21 68 01

E-mail: postmottak@mattilsynet.no
Internet: www.mattilsynet.no

The Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT)

P.O. Box 8100 dep.
N-0032 Oslo

Tel.: +47/22 57 34 00
Fax.: +47/22 67 67 06

E-mail:
Internet: www.sft.no

Nordic Swan Label (Nordic Ecolabelling)

Internet: www.ecolabel.no

Criteria for homecomposters ( http://www.svanen.nu/DocEng/019e.PDF )

Lovdata

Current Norwegian legislation can be downloaded from Lovdata:

www.lovdata.no