New government data published on Monday showed that 95% of non-recyclable waste in Essex is sent to landfill, as officials launched circular economy plans.
Information revealed that seven local authorities in England reported sending more than 40% of their residual waste to landfill in 2022 to 2023, with the county council of Essex at the top of the list.
Next Cambridge County Council (87% of waste sent to landfill), Southend Borough Council (74%), Darlington Borough Council (61%), Lancaster County Council (59%), Leicester city council (57%) and Newcastle upon Tyne city council (56%).
Currently, non-recyclable waste is either incinerated or landfilled.
However, as the population grows, the way packaging is used and has to be changed to reduce the amount of waste sent to the ground. This includes being more recyclable and using less.
Ministers I announced the selection of policies to encourage a circular economy, even simpler recycling in England, so that less waste is sent to landfill or incineration.
Other policies include a deposit returns system for plastic bottles and charging manufacturers for producing too much waste using the “polluting” principle. This would encourage producers to sell products in recycled and recycled packaging.
In the month of July, the government they were targets which would require local authorities to send, on average, no more than 10% of municipal waste to landfill by 2035.
On Monday, as part of the circular economy strategy, it was announced to scrap the new incinerator and encourage recycling instead. Almost half of the waste (49%) collected by local authorities in 2022-23 was incinerated, while approximately 40% was recycled.
But the plans will come against the backd- falling recycling ratesaccording to the latest date. In 2021, the household recycling rate was 44.1%, falling to 43.4% in 2022.
The new policy will make it more difficult to obtain a license for incinerators. To build them, developers will have to demonstrate that their projects will help reduce the amount of recyclable waste sent to landfill or replace older, less efficient plants.
Developers also need to be ready to build new carbon-capture projects when the requirements come into force, and show how they can be used to produce heat that could be used for other decarbonisation projects. Incineration It is responsible for providing about 3% of the UK’s energy generation.
Circular Economy Minister Maria Creagh said: “For too long, countries have seen their recycling rates stagnate and believed they were wasting away on household fires, rather than encouraging communities to keep resources in use for longer.
“What ends today, with the clear conditions of new energy from abandoned plants – there must be efficient and no support and the mission of our economic growth, before the support work can be built.
“It is another vital step on the road to a circular economy, where we reduce waste to the land economy and expand it, while also increasing the benefits of those resources to communities. This will also help us to deliver on our strategy for Change in the Decade of National Renewal.
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Charlotte Rule, head of climate and energy at the Environmental Services Association, added: “Recovering excess energy and materials from waste after recycling is an important part of the circular economy, but the development of energy from waste (EfW) facilities must be carefully balanced against current and future capacity needs. , which supports the new residual waste infrastructure capacity.
“Increasing recycling systems and capturing coal and increasing district heat networks across the UK’s EfW fleet will all play a part in helping our sector decarbonise by 2040, and will contribute to the UK’s net zero targets, so we welcome government support in these areas. .
A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: “59% of our waste is currently sent to landfill due to long-term contractual obligations, but this will reduce significantly in 2025-26 and almost entirely in 2026-27 when the contract expires.
“By April 2025, a significant proportion of the waste that went to landfill will be recovered through on-site thermal treatment processes.
“From April 2026, the only waste that will be sent to landfill is that which cannot be treated by another process, which we expect to be a very small percentage.”
Local authorities in Essex, Cambridge, Southend, Darlington, Leicester and Newcastle upon Tyne have also been contacted.