ESA slams Dispatches waste documentary  

The documentary, called The Dirty Truth About Your Rubbish, aired on Channel 4 last night and claimed that on average, 11% of material put out for recycling actually ended up being sent for energy recovery.

This was based on freedom of information requests sent to every council in the UK. The programme also released the range of responses it received on Twitter, as seen below.

#Dispatches sent Freedom of Information requests to every authority in the UK responsible for waste management & received responses from more than 100 councils. THREAD 1/

— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) March 8, 2021

One reason potential reason put forward by a waste sector expert for the figures was contamination, which may be included in the overall ‘collected for recycling’ numbers.

Undermine

However, ESA executive director, Jacob Hayer, argued that this media coverage only serves to “undermine” the public’s confidence in recycling.

In a statement released yesterday, Mr Hayer explained: “We welcome dialogue with all stakeholders on these important issues, which is why the ESA participated in the Dispatches programme.

“The irony is that the recycling and waste management industry wants the same outcome as many of those opposed to energy recovery.” – Jacob Hayler, ESA

“But media coverage like this unfortunately only serves to undermine the public’s confidence in recycling and generates mistrust at a time when we should all be optimistic about the direction of travel towards both a circular economy and net-zero carbon future.”

Mr Hayler also urged that taxing or banning energy recovery is “not going to stimulate recycling markets” or make it any easier for consumers to recycle, which is why the focus must remain on other, “more targeted” policy interventions.

He said: “The irony is that the recycling and waste management industry wants the same outcome as many of those opposed to energy recovery.

“We would like to see a more resource-efficient economy where as many valuable materials are kept in productive use for as long as possible, and we also want to achieve net zero carbon emissions in line with the UK’s global commitment.”

Carbon

The ESA also pointed out that the waste industry’s transition away from landfill to energy recovery has resulted in a 63% reduction in carbon emissions since 1990, which it highlighted was acknowledged by the government’s Committee on Climate Change (CCC) in the Sixth Carbon budget.

It added that if measures set out in Defra’s Resources and Waste Strategy are successful ,they will help householders, businesses and the waste industry to recycle a “greater proportion” of the country’s waste, and therefore reduce the volume of material going to energy recovery.

The association argued that

removing poor quality plastics from the market, and increasing recycling rates for the remaining plastic, will also help to reduce the volume of these materials in the residual waste stream.

Undermining

However, according to Shlomo Dowen, national coordinator of the UK Without Incineration Network (UKWIN), the “incineration industry’s confidence” in the need for facilities is “undermined by their unwillingness to ditch the minimum tonnage guarantees and put-or-pay clauses in the multimillion pound contracts they have with local councils”.

He said: “It is further undermined by the fact that applicants for new incinerators are often basing their needs assessments on the premise that the Government’s 65% recycling target will not be achieved, let alone the CCC’s 70% target. The industry’s behaviour seems to concede the point that their incinerators are incompatible with higher recycling rates”.