New waste incineration report published

07 February 2023

From the Scottish Government news site

Reducing emissions from waste

Stopping plastics from being incinerated is one of the key recommendations of an independent review of decarbonising the treatment of residual waste.

The report follows last year’s independent review of the role of incineration in Scotland, which recommended placing a cap on future capacity and led to Ministers putting restrictions on the development of further incinerators.

Report author Dr Colin Church has made several new recommendations to reduce the carbon impact of residual (or ‘black bag’) waste treatment infrastructure, including stopping plastic from being incinerated in Scotland.  In addition, he has recommended:

• taking forward policies to reduce plastic production and use
• promoting source segregation of all plastics, and implementing advanced sorting to remove plastics from black bag waste
• using the heat from incinerators where possible, for example for homes and businesses

Dr Church said:

“Incineration remains a more climate-friendly method of managing residual waste than traditional landfill, and more practical than any other currently available approach.  However, without further action, this advantage will erode over a relatively short time.  That is why my second report sets out a series of recommendations to improve the carbon impact of residual waste treatment, of which the most urgent and potentially most impactful is the cessation this decade of the incineration of plastic.”

Read the report

Summary by Let'sRecycle.com