Yesterday's unveiling of the UK's first ever National Infrasture Plan highlighed the need, amongst others, for a more sutainable approach to waste management and treatment, and the value of energy from waste.

The essence of the National Infrastructure Plan is to rebuild the economy by targeting the country’s infrastructure and expanding the private sector. To achieve this the government plans to unlock £200bn of both public and private investment over the next five years; it is hoped that this infrastructure investment programme will help ‘rebalance’ the economy and give industries the right conditions in which to grow.

Central to waste management is a recognition by government to promote the 'right incentives and behaviours in order to produce the required investment'. Equally important are plans to "explore how the planning for waste treatment infrastructure, particularly residual waste treatment infrastructure, may be facilitated with greater community support". This is likely to win support from waste management companies who have highlighted the need to win community support for waste projects as a potential way to overcome the difficulties they face in securing planning permission for new waste facilities.

On energy from waste, the infrastructure plan reiterates the government's commitment to "promote and incentivise" energy from waste, in particular anaerobic digestion (AD).

Moreover, it identifies how an expansion of AD, and also "less carbon intensive fuels" such as solid recovered fuels, could have a key role to play in developing a low carbon energy base and a reduced reliance on imported energy. Opinion from within industry is that, energy from waste, in all its forms, could contribute up to 6%  of UK electricity by 2015.