1 Introduction and organic waste situation

update July2010

General
Municipalities have the responsibility for the household waste in Norway, whereas all other waste (ranging from schools, restaurants, shops and industry) remains the responsibility of the waste owner.
The source separation of biowaste started in Norwegian municipalities 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 communicated by the authorities in 1992, but a country wide ban was not effective until 2001. At 1. July 2009 a second and more comprehensive landfill ban was introduced, prohibiting the landfilling of degradable waste with TOC > 10 % or organic matter > 20 %. Transissional period is possible until the end of 2012 but requires contracts with incineration plants under construction.

A specific final disposal tax (landfilling and incineration) was introduced in 1999 and its amount is officially reflecting the socio-economic costs for final disposal . The tax started up at NOK 300 and is in 2010 NOK 455 for degradable waste landfilled under the transissional criteria and NOK 275 for other waste. These measures have motivated many of the municipalities to include biological waste treatment in their waste management plans.

The tax on incineration was changed 2004 from a tax on treated waste to a tax on real measured emissions (CO2, fine particles, heavy metals and organic pollutants) , on average the tax amounts to approximately NOK 100 per ton of treated waste. . The tax is decided to abandoned from 1. October 2010 due to hard competition with Swedish waste incinerator operators that will see their tax be removed from the same date.

Source separation
According to national statistics 68 % of the population (3,2 mio) has source separation of biowaste in their households (2009) and 171 000 tonnes were collected (2009), an average of 53,4 kg/source separating inhabitant * year . 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, the other inhabitants 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.
The products are classified after their concentrations of heavy metals according to the table below. Specific user restrictions are linked to the quality classes as shown in the table.

Table 1. Quality classes and user restrictions
The regulation is under revision in 2010. The European Animal Byproduct regulation with amendments is valid in Norway after being treated in the EEA-committee, since Norway is not an EU member.

3. Contacts and source of information

Avfall Norge – Waste Management Norway
Mr. Henrik Lystad
Nedre Vollgt. 3
N-0158 Oslo, Norway
Tel.: +47/024 14 66 00
Fax.: +47/024 14 66 01
E-mail: henrik.lystad@avfallnorge.no
Internet: www.avfallnorge.no

Statistics Norway (Statistisk Sentralbyrå) www.ssb.no


Klima- og forureningsningsdirektoratet (Klif) – Norwegian climate and pollution agency
Postboks 8100 Dep,
0032 Oslo
Telefon: +47/ 22 57 34 00 -
Fax: +47/22 67 67 06
E-post: postmottak@klif.no
Internet: www.klif.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