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 61 % of the population (2,8 mio) and about 140 000 tonnes were collected (2002). Biowaste in Norway consists in most regions of 90 - 100 % kitchen waste, including kitchen waste of animal origin. Only 25 % of the population have a collection system for garden waste, among the rest many may deliver it at the local recycling station. About 84 000 tonnes of garden waste from households was registered in 2002.

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 may grant the household a reduction in the waste collection fee and/or a reduced price for certified compost bins. The Nordic Ecolabelling has set up criteria for compost bins (see below). There are no national statistics on the use of home composting in Norway, but in many municipalities about 5-10 % of the households have a home composting contract with their municipality.

Centralised biological treatment

In 2001 approximately 40 centralised biological plants treated 298 000 tonnes of organic waste (including amendment). Composting is the dominating technology, in 2003 there were only to plants using anaerobic biogas technology. Among the aerobic treatment plants, the majority of the plants are small plants operating in open facilities, using turned windrows or static piles. Local farmers operate some of the small facilities. 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

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 %.

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

Landfill ban and end disposal tax

Since 2001 there has been a landfill ban for easy degradable organic waste, also called wet organic waste. The landfill regulation from 2002 states that the ban applies for all easy degradable organic waste except the fraction that is practically impossible to sort out by source separation.

Before the end disposal tax was introduced in 1999, a governmental working group estimated the external costs of end disposing of waste to approximately NOK 300/t. As a consequence an end disposal tax was introduced and set to NOK 300 for landfilling. The tax for incineration is calculated after the degree of energy recovery. The tax is yearly index regulated after the consumer price index. 1. July 03 the tax was raised by NOK 100 for landfills that do not meet criteria from the EU landfill directive on double bottom liner, that regulatory are due first in 2009.

Regulations concerning organic fertiliseres and soil improvers etc.

Since 1996 production and marketing of products based on organic waste is regulated under the “Regulations concerning fertilisers and soil improvers, etc.”. Sewage sludge has been regulated under a separate regulation. From 20. July 03 a new regulation is valid that unites the regulations concerning all kinds of organic waste including sewage sludge and manure. The new regulation, called “Regulations concerning organic fertilisers and soil improvers etc.” 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.

The products are classified after their concentrations of heavy metals according to the table below. Certain user restrictions are linked to the quality classes as shown in the table.

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: 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