Environmental campaigners have said the UK needs tougher recycling targets if it is to be a world leader on tackling waste.
Friends of the Earth resource use campaigner Michael Warhurst said: “People in Flanders already recycle more than 70 per cent of their waste, yet the target for England is just 50 per cent by 2020. The Government, must stop funding new incinerators which don’t help tackle climate change. Recycling is much better for the climate and helps save previous resources too. Genuine renewable energy can be obtained by collecting food waste and anaerobic digesting it, not burning things in incinerators.”
Last week the charity published research which showed that the UK is land filling and incinerating more than £650 million of recyclables every year. According to the environmental group, if all the materials were recycled it would be equivalent to taking six million cars off the road every year.
The statement was a response to Environment Secretary Hilary Benn’s call for the UK to become a “zero waste” nation.
Speaking about his promise for the UK to become a zero waste nation, Benn claimed new technologies, such as anaerobic digestion, would help: “In ten years time 75 per cent of household waste will either be recycled or used for energy, and over time this figure will increase even further. Aiming for zero waste is the way we have to think to get us where we need to be.”
He was speaking as the government announced a raft of targets and measures for both household and commercial and industrial waste, one of which was that in 10 years' time 75% of household waste would either be recycled or used for energy.
In February 2008, Benn said that up to £10 million would be made available from the Environmental Transformation Fund towards the construction of new plants to demonstrate ‘state of the art' use of AD to create renewable energy. These are expected to be built by March 2011. At the same event, secretary of state for Communities and Local Government John Denham also said: "If we continue to send recyclable or compostable waste to landfill we are missing a major opportunity to generate heat and energy.”
Commenting on Benn’s speech, Environmental Services Association chief executive Dirk Hazell said that the UK was still some way from the reliable route map to the correct implementation of EU waste laws that Britain needs. He said: “We are glad Ministers now recognise the need for more British infrastructure to recover energy from waste. This will become even more important if the shift from landfill is accelerated as landfills have been providing a quarter of the UK’s renewable electricity.”
