Waste incineration set to overtake recycling in England, Greens warn

Amount of rubbish burned by local authorities triples while household recycling rates stall

England is on the brink of burning more of its rubbish in incinerators than it recycles for the first time, according to a new analysis.

The amount of waste managed by local authorities and sent to incinerators, or energy-from-waste plants, tripled between 2010-11 and 2016-17. By contrast, household recycling rates have stalled since 2013.

If those trends continue, the millions of tonnes of waste incinerated will overtake the amount sent for recycling by the end of the current financial year, a report by the Green party found.

London, the West Midlands and north-east already burn more than they recycle.

The Greens, who argue that incineration is bad for climate change and holds back recycling rates, said it was shocking that recycling was now going to be overtaken nationally.

Incinerated waste to overtake recycling graph

Baroness Jones, the Green party peer, said: “There is a logic to generating energy from the waste that we cannot recycle or reuse, but it is meant to be the last resort option. What we have created instead is a market-driven system of incinerators which constantly need to be fed.”

In 2016-17, the last year for which official data is available, about 4m tonnes were landfilled, about 10m incinerated and just over 11m recycled or composted.

However, the Greens did not look at how many new incinerators are in the planning pipeline, and only extrapolated from previous trends.

Just one new incinerator started construction last year, in Bristol, suggesting the rapid growth in recent years may be slowing down.

There were 40 energy-from-waste facilities in the UK in 2017, up from 26 in 2014. Together they have a combined operational capacity of handling 12m tonnes of waste a year, a figure that experts expect will rise to nearly 16m by 2022.

Jacob Hayler, executive director at waste trade association the ESA, said: “Too often the debate is set up as recycling v incineration – that’s the wrong way to frame it. Really, it’s landfill against incineration for things you can’t recycle.”

He said cuts to local authority budgets were to blame for recycling stagnating, not incineration growth. “The trend is there isn’t enough policy support for recycling, so recycling rates have slowed down.”

The French, British and Spanish firms looking to build more incinerators will also come under scrutiny for their impact on air pollution on Tuesday in a cross-party report by MPs.

Contributor

Adam Vaughan

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Reduce waste, recycle more, and stop the burning | Letters
Letters: Jenny Jones says the UK must respond proactively to news that China has banned imports of millions of tons of plastic waste

Letters

05, Jan, 2018 @6:26 PM

Article image
Revealed: why hundreds of thousands of tonnes of recycling are going up in smoke
Investigation questions eco-friendly claims of incineration industry

Lucy Siegle

07, Mar, 2021 @7:15 AM

Article image
Retailers to pay for consumers’ e-waste recycling from 2026 under UK plans
Households will be able to drop off cables and other electrical waste in-store or have home collections, says Defra

Anna Isaac

28, Dec, 2023 @12:01 AM

Article image
Waste not, want not: how the rubbish industry learned to look beyond landfill
With rise of incineration and heavy taxes, refuse management has evolved beyond mere dumps – but sector experts warn of complacency over recycling

Karl West

27, Feb, 2015 @6:23 PM

Article image
Ikea to sell refurbished furniture to boost culture of recycling
Swedish retailer expands old furniture exchange scheme as part of circular business model

Sarah Butler

07, Feb, 2019 @6:04 PM

Article image
Businesses named on 'A-list' for tackling their climate impact
Sainsbury’s, Lego and H&M feature on list that rewards shift to renewable energy and reducing emissions

Zoe Wood

20, Jan, 2020 @9:00 AM

Article image
‘Change is always difficult’: from no lids to vac-packs, the war on plastic packaging divides opinion
As more supermarkets put recycling at forefront, ‘early adopters’ are pitted against shoppers ‘who are challenged by it’

Zoe Wood, Alfie Packham and Clea Skopeliti

14, Apr, 2023 @3:08 PM

Recycling firms backpedal after price crash

Companies forced to stockpile raw materials as result of lack of demand from far east

Sarah Butler

29, Dec, 2008 @12:01 AM

Article image
Morrisons to trial paper bags for groceries and higher price for plastic bags
The supermarket is increasing the cost of its standard plastic bags up to 15p from 10p

Gwyn Topham

28, Jan, 2019 @6:01 AM

Article image
‘Zombie batteries’ causing hundreds of waste fires, experts warn
Industry experts urge people not to throw out batteries with household rubbish or recycling

Damian Carrington Environment editor

26, Oct, 2020 @6:00 AM