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The most recent figures show 12.1m tonnes of waste collected by councils in England was burned in 2022-23, 49% of all local authority waste. The proposed new incinerators will mean England will be burning more than half the waste collected by councils, with claims that this undermines Labour’s ambition of a “circular economy”, which has the ambitions of reduced waste, recycling and an extended life cycle of products.
Scientists have warned that incinerators are a “disaster” for the climate. Analysis by the BBC in October found that burning waste produces the same amount of greenhouse gases for each unit of energy as coal power. The country’s last coal power station shut down in September.
Scotland and Wales have already banned new incinerator plants because of environmental concerns. The Tories pledged in their manifesto at the general election to “prevent new waste incinerators being built”.
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