The latest document on Energy from Waste from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) puts the entire subject of large incinerators in doubt. The report backs up the concerns of campaigners who have been worried that burning is not the best way of dealing with waste.
Pippa Bartolotti, Wales Green Party Leader said, “Defra, like the Greens, are concerned that large burners, like the one planned in Cardiff, will depress recycling. What we need is more flexibility. Metal, plastic and paper are readily recyclable, and there are good markets for them. Food waste is easily compostable, and provides nourishment for the land from which it originally came.
“As we learn to prevent waste, and start to value materials by reusing and recycling increasing amounts of what used to be called rubbish, large incinerators will become redundant. What concerns me is not only the outrageous amount of public money which will go into keeping these big burners going over their 30 year lifespan ( £1.1 billion for the Viridor plant in Cardiff), but also the very real threat of sending perfectly good recyclable materials for burning.”
The report says: In an ideal world all waste would be prevented.… Where waste does exist it is usually best to reuse it if possible, and if not, to recycle it. (Defra, 2013 p.2)
Waste infrastructure has a long lifetime and care needs to be taken at the start to ensure systems can adapt to potential long term change and drive waste up the hierarchy, not constrain it. Flexibility of the overall approach to future change should therefore be another key consideration in any proposal." (Defra, 2013 p.3)
Pippa Bartolotti added “Campaigners have long been pointing out the discrepancy between increasing recycling rates and the building of mass burn incinerators. We already have too many large incinerators in the planning system. Building yet another inflexible mass burner makes a mockery of the time and effort diligent householders have been putting into doorstep recycling.”
In 2012, Wales recycled an average of 54%, with some areas up to 70%.
In 2010 Austria achieved 70% recycling (including composting); Germany achieved 62% recycling and Belgium achieved 62% recycling.
Defra (2013) Energy from waste: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181831/pb13892-energy-from-waste.pdf.pdf,