The UK could quadruple the amount of energy that it generates from waste within five years, it has been claimed.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has released its Going to Waste: Making the Case for Energy From Waste report which states that energy-from-waste (EfW) sources could provide six per cent of the country's power by 2015.
According to the group, the government should encourage the use of non-recyclable waste in the EfW industry to reduce the amount of waste sent to the landfill and help meet the energy needs of the UK.
Neil Bentley, CBI director of business environment, claimed more anaerobic digestion and incineration plants should be developed.
He said: "Across Europe, generating energy from waste is common and compatible with high levels of recycling.
"The government needs to encourage the development of more anaerobic digestion and incineration plants, and tackle delays in the planning system."
Typical Guttridge equipment used in the energy-from-waste industry includes; conveyors – screw conveyors – chain conveyors – belt conveyors
By publishing this report the CBI is threatening job creation in the UK. Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have demonstrated that recycling generates between 12 and 39 times more jobs than incineration.
The idea that only non-recyclable waste will be burnt is not credible, when the government is investing almost nothing on recycling. And just because something isn’t recyclable now doesn’t mean that it won’t be in the future. More and more things are becoming recyclable all the time, such as batteries and Tetrapak drink cartons.
Of course there are some things that are genuinely non-recyclable, such as squeezy ketchup bottles, which are made from layers of different types of plastic. However the solution to this problem is not to burn them, but to stop the manufacturers making them!
As a general point, experts point out that even the most efficient incinerators only recover around a tenth of the energy used to make the products of which our rubbish is comprised. This is obviously unsustainable from and environmental point of view.
Furthermore the claim that incineration is compatible with high levels of recycling is simply untrue. The Audit Commission reported in 2007 that “For a long time, councils with incinerators have had poor recycling rates.” (http://www.gainscotland.org.uk/news_from_scotland.shtml#nabble-td924516).
Your readers may be interested in a new petition to the Scottish Parliament, calling for a ban on waste incineration and large scale biomass burning (the latter is already causing concern for UK manufacturers of board and paper, by forcing up raw material prices). For more information about the petition, please visit http://www.gainscotland.org.uk/petition.shtml