Recycling targets go up in smoke as more incinerators are built

BRITAIN’S push to recycle is at risk from a boom in building incinerators, experts warn.

Twice as much waste is being burnt in plants as eight years ago – despite recycling targets and health concerns.

Officials have allowed 21 plants to fire up since 2010, when there were already 23 – and 18 more are being built.

But, spurred on by the Daily Mail’s Turn The Tide On Plastic campaign, Britons are recycling more than ever and producing less waste.

Councils will soon be locked into contracts to burn more rubbish than homes are producing, experts say.

This makes it likely that more ‘lowgrade’ recyclable plastic – such as bottle tops, yoghurt pots and carrier bags – will be sent for incineration. Professor Peter edwards, of Oxford University’s chemistry department, said: ‘It can be harmful and incineration, of course, also produces high levels of greenhouse gases.

‘Rolling out more and more incineration plants surely can’t be a sustainable solution for the mountain of plastic now building up.’

Green Party peer Baroness Jones said higher incineration led to less recycling, adding: ‘ People want to recycle, but many local authorities are taking the lazy route of burning what is often a valuable resource.’

Figures show 10million tons of household waste was incinerated in england in 2016, compared with 4.3million in 2010. But, since 2010, the amount of rubbish suitable for incineration is down from 30million tons a year to 26million.

In that period, the UK has doubled its capacity for burning waste to 13.5million tons – and the incinerators under construction will need more than 3million tons a year.

By 2021, the UK will have an ‘over-capacity’ for incineration, meaning plants will need waste from other sources – such as rubbish from other countries – according to environmental consultancy firm eunomia.

Councils, which are free to grant permission to build incinerators, are regularly tied into contracts of 25 years or more to provide fixed amounts of household waste that is burnt to provide electricity, or heating, for nearby homes.

harriet Parke, of eunomia, said a lack of government oversight has allowed so many incinerators to spring up over the last decade – some within just a few miles of each other. She said: ‘We are now sleepwalking into the reality of having too many incinerators for the amount of waste we are producing.’

Labour’s Frank Field – one of 18 MPs to raise concerns about incinerators in an early- day motion last year – added: ‘Given there is now a powerful Daily Mail campaign to focus on recycling, perhaps local authorities who have granted planning permission for incinerators yet to be constructed would like to reconsider their decisions. Otherwise they will halt waste reduction and recycling.’

Public health england said a study it is funding found incinerator emissions were not ‘a significant risk’ to health.

The Department for environment, Food and Rural Affairs said its 25-year plan looked at further ways to reduce avoidable waste and recycle more.