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St Merryn Meat is one of the largest UK meat procesors

There are fears that new European laws on waste disposal could cost the meat industry millions of pounds and damage the environment.

The UK is just one of just three EU member states to designate rendered animal fat, or tallow, as waste rather than a fuel.

And the industry is warning the move could have huge implications.

Meat is big business - and few UK processors are bigger than Cornwall's St Merryn Meat.

Its Bodmin plant can handle more than 1700 cattle a week - taking in live animals at one end and producing meat for major supermarkets at the other.

Along with the rest of the industry they've had their fair share of knocks in recent years, but things were looking up.

Annual turnover is around �300m, but now new European legislation looks set to hit them hard once again.

"The increased costs to our business will be huge," said St Merryn Livestock Director John Dracup.

"For St Merryn alone we are talking about �1.3m a year and we believe to our industry the increased cost will be in the region of �35m, which we can little afford at the moment."

Processors like St Merryn Meat pay for by-products - essentially the parts of the carcass which are not used as meat - to be taken away and disposed of at rendering plants.

Here those by-products are processed to produce two end products - firstly, bone meal, which can be used in anything from fertilisers to animal feed and secondly rendered animal fat, or tallow.

Tallow is used in a multitude of products, from food to cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Up until now it has also been used as a bio-fuel.

"In most cases rendering plants have produced enough tallow that they are able to use it to fuel their steam boilers or thermo oxidisers," said Stephen Woodgate, of the UK Renderers' Association.

"In recent time we have produced more than we need and we have been able to sell the excess to power stations."

But that is about to change. From 1 January 2006 the UK is one of just three of the 25 EU member states set to designate tallow as waste rather than fuel under the Waste Incineration Directive.

Renderers say that, as the will be unable to afford the �300,000 cost to modify their equipment to meet the requirements of the directive, they will be forced to revert to burning fossil fuels.

"Here at this plant that will mean we will be putting 15,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere each year," says Steve Woodgate. "That cannot be right".

A DEFRA spokesman said there is as yet no ban on the burning of tallow from 1 January 2006.

"The Government has neither designated tallow as waste nor banned its use as a fuel. However, we are aware of the concerns being expressed by the rendering industry.

"Their concerns are being taken seriously and we are working hard to find a solution," he said.

South West MEP Neil Parish called on the Government to follow the 22 other EU members who have not designated tallow as waste.

"The situation is nonsensical. The framing of the directive is wrong and we would be wrong to implement it. We need to hold off and get this sorted out," he said.

Hopes of a review are high. But if this goes ahead, any increased financial costs will undoubtedly be shared between the producers and the pockets of the consumer, but with the Government under pressure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions the cost to us all could be far greater.

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