And after we’ve sorted through the rubbish, at great expense of time, then the council can take it all away and burn it!
Under European Union rules, landfill charges are set to rise from £32 to £48 a tonne by 2010, and local authorities have struggled to increase recycling rates to levels which would substantially reduce the rubbish mountain.
Many are now said to be considering incineration as a means of replacing expensive and environmentally damaging landfill sights.
According to Channel 4 News, 30 sites have been selected already, as councils spend Government-allotted waste management funds on long-term contracts with multinational waste companies.
Gosh, that was a good use of our time, wasn’t it?
10 responses so far ↓
1 john b // Jul 22, 2008 at 10:59 am
Sounds like they’re burning the stuff that hasn’t been sorted into recycle bins, rather than the stuff that has?
2 JuliaM // Jul 22, 2008 at 10:59 am
I guess we’ll be seeing a lot more of this then..?
3 Mark Wadsworth // Jul 22, 2008 at 11:09 am
“sites”
Which is another reason why landfill tax is an insane tax – these incinerators are only commercially viable because the alternative is made so prohibitively expensive.
Is Landfill Tax perhaps the result of generous lobbying in Brussels by manufacturers of incineration plants?
4 jeremiah // Jul 22, 2008 at 11:10 am
It’s often stated that the US, widely held to be the world’s most profligate nation (boo hiss etc) is running out of landfill. Yet, if you collected every scrap of rubbish ever sent to a US landfill in one place, it would be roughly ten miles square and a mile high.
Not *exactly* a massive chunk of the US’ landmass, is it?
5 dearieme // Jul 22, 2008 at 1:52 pm
“Sounds like they’re burning the stuff that hasn’t been sorted into recycle bins, rather than the stuff that has?” But what about the stuff that has been sorted into recycle bins and then mixed together again by the coiuncil? Does it carry an air of moral superiority that it exempts it from the fires of hell?
6 john b // Jul 22, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Do councils really mix recyclables back into general rubbish in significant quantities? I thought that was an urban myth…
7 Mark Wadsworth // Jul 22, 2008 at 2:49 pm
It’s not an urban myth. It’s an urban district myth.
8 Monty // Jul 22, 2008 at 5:07 pm
John B, it has been known for councils to collect the rubbish from segregated bins, and dump the stuff into landfill. I remember one instance where this happened on several occasions, and someone blew the whistle on what was going on. If I recall correctly, the councils excuse, on being found out, was that the householders were to blame, so there!
9 Jimbo // Jul 22, 2008 at 5:45 pm
“landfill sights”?????
I now recall why I stopped reading the rag. Sub!!!
10 Colin // Aug 13, 2008 at 1:38 am
There are 6 incinerators around Paris, i think they burn things and generate electricity and call it ‘recycling’, ha! Brilliant.
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