Under Labour, recycling of household waste has more than trebled from 7% in 1997, to 22% today. We still have a huge way to go to match Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Belgium, who recycle more than half of their household waste, but we are catching them up from the appalling environmental situation the Tories left us in, when we had the least recycling of household waste in Europe.
What's more we also incinerate (by far) the least waste in the EU (apart from Ireland, Greece and Spain who use landfill far more than us), so there is scope to increase this, as indeed we have plans to do.
If this report from Sweden is correct then incineration is not much different to recycling in terms of energy use (as huge amounts of energy are used with sorting and transport when recycling).
This Labour government is also putting pressure on supermarkets and producers to reduce the amount of packaging they produce and/or make it much easier to recycle.
In the latest FOE scoring, the Tories were rated by far the worst on environmental policies in the EU.
If you lot are so 'green' on recycling, why are you proposing an incinerator at Newhaven?
ReplyDeleteThe UK incinerates far less rubbish than almost anywhere in the EU. Opposing all incinerators from a nimby point of view is just being impractical.
ReplyDeleteWhile recycling has been dramatically increased and will be encouraged still further, virtually every country in the EU incinerates more than the UK and recognise this as essential, the alternative is landfill and that is worse.
In terms of energy use (and generation) incineration is attractive. Landfill will also soon incur massive EU fines, so local authorities have to move away from this.
Incineration by no means is completely clean (although technology has recently improved it dramatically) and of course it is not an ideal solution, but until we can get 100% recyling and composting it may be the best option we have.
Anonymous - it's like a 'speak-your-party-line' machine, no?
ReplyDeleteBlue Fox, well if, (as on this occasion), the party line is right, what am I supposed to say?
ReplyDeleteI think it is you and anon that should look to why you oppose Labour on EVERYTHING? There are plenty of issues, which I outline on here where I disagree with Labour, for instance, electoral reform, the need for a written constitution, elected 2nd chamber, citizen's income, green taxes etc.
Do you support Labour on anything? Considering Labour is a party that has won 3 successive elections, it must be doing something right. If you disagree with it on everything, I suggest you look to your own prejudice.