EMF report massively overstates the benefits of AD

I have just started leafing through the latest Ellen MacArthur Foundation report into the circular economy. The section on the potential benefits of Anaerobic Digestion in the UK is simply extraordinary. To be frank, I think it is dangerous nonsense to tell local authorities that they can make £112 profit per tonne of food waste processed by AD (based on an exchange rate of 64 pence to the dollar).

Almost all of their supposed profit comes from a combination of subsidies for renewable energy generation and avoided landfill costs (most of which is landfill tax). So, even if we accept their assumptions at face value (I personally think they both overstate the revenues and underestimate the costs), we find that all of the 'profit' to be made actually comes from government intervention. In the absence of this intervention, authorities would in fact be faced with higher costs (in the order of £33/tonne using their assumptions).

So, at an aggregate economy-wide level the real returns are actually negative.

Moving the management of the UK's wastes up the waste hierarchy will increase local authorities' waste management costs over time. To claim instead that they can make massive profits from it is simply not the reality of the situation. I really don't think this sort of report is helpful as it fuels misinformation and leads to poor options being pursued.