Threat to one of Britain's oldest methods of waste recycling

Date published: 14/02/2006

Rochdale Euro-MP Chris Davies is calling on EU officials to help lift a threat to one of Britain's oldest methods of waste recycling.

Waste animal fats called tallow were first used by the Romans to make dipped candles. Since tallow is cheap and easily available it was for centuries the most widely used type of candle.

Today it is used in the manufacture of oleochemicals, providing a base material for thousands of products including shampoo, plastic and paints. It even has applications in mining and metal working.

But the industry, which has an annual turnover of £4b and directly employs over 10,000 people across Europe, risks being driven from the market because government subsidies are available if tallow is instead used as a fuel in power stations.

Chris Davies has been asked to try and secure a change to EU rules that allow it to be used as a source of renewable
energy.

The industry fears that Britain's entire supply of tallow could be used by a single power station leaving chemical companies without the raw material.  Manufacturers will instead resort to the use of imported palm oil alternatives from the Far East. 

Chris has written to the European Commission highlighting this oversight in the law and asking what action will be
taken to prevent the end of the traditional use of tallow.

He said: "We all want to encourage renewable energy but where is the sense in sacrificing an historic industry that uses a sustainable product?

"Palm oil is often produced at the expense of tropical forests that are destroyed to make room for it. This is too high an environmental cost to pay."