SSF (Secondary Solid Fuel) is a waste disguised as fuel
False. Beyond the regulatory aspects that regulate it, from a technical and practical point of view it is not correct to define Secondary Solid Fuel (SSF) simply as a waste. In fact, this fuel is derived from a series of special physical and mechanical treatments of unsorted solid urban waste (SUW) that take place downstream of separate collection, increasing its value and making it possible to use it as a calorie carrier in a combustion system, the purpose of which is not the incineration of a waste but rather the manufacture of a product (cement). Indeed it allows a use that is an alternative to landfill disposal and incineration, exploiting a combustion process that takes place anyway for production purposes.
Then, from a regulatory point of view and in compliance with certain strict conditions established by Ministerial Decree no. 22 of 14 February 2013, thanks to these treatments the waste thus recovered ceases to be such and is recognized as a fuel as per Annex X of Part Five of Italian Legislative Decree 152/2006. In such cases, it is therefore the processing carried out on the waste that determines its transformation into a product.
The use of SSF is foreseen by the sector Best Available Techniques (BAT) and respects the EU waste hierarchy, downstream of recycling and material recovery. This use enables energy recovery prior to disposal in landfills.