Engineers Propose Engines to Solve Problem
Recycling shipped to China to be burnt as cheap fuel - Telegraph
The Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) said the Government's policy of recycling as much as possible is failing to help the environment because materials are being dumped in landfill or shipped to developing countries.
Ian Arbon, author of the report, said local authorities have no duty to track where recycling goes once it is sold onto waste contractors. Therefore a "colossal amount" is ending up in China where there are few environmental restrictions to stop it being burnt as cheap fuel.
"People would be very angry if they knew the recycling they have carefully sorted was going to China," he said.
Mr Arbon said the UK would do far better to process waste locally because it would not only cut down on the carbon emissions used to transport waste but generate electricity from a renewable source. He said the modern generation of incinerators do not pollute the environment and pointed out they are already in use across the Continent.
Download the report here.
Might as well burn the plastic bottles here as pay the Chinese to, in fact those of us with a large "woodburning" stove already have our own local Energy from Waste plant. The problem as ever is people complaining about possible nasties coming out of the chimneys to which are spanner monkey friends reply: In fact, the pollution caused by an EfW plant is as likely to be as damaging as throwing a sugar lump into Loch Ness!