Isonomia

by Peter Jones

The Daily Mail ran an extraordinary story on its front page on 5^th April, claiming that 12m tons (sic.) of material collected as household recycling is in fact being landfilled overseas. The article also reports that official statistics showing a recycling rate of 43% of household waste are overstated because “in reality, processors reject most recyclable material, which then often ends up in landfill sites.”

Read more on The Daily Mail’s recycling “con” con…

by Clare Pitts-Tucker

What happens to your unwanted clothes when you get rid of them? The question is particularly pressing at Christmas, when our powerful gift giving customs may leave us with unwearable, unreturnable, unwanted clothing: a hideous Christmas jumper, perhaps, destined to be worn only once; or some thick woollen socks (very much like marmite, you either love them or you hate them); or perhaps your new gloves will prompt you to get rid of that old pair with a hole in. At this time of year, clothing of all degrees of quality is destined for the bin.

Read more on A jumper’s journey…

by Adam Baddeley

An article by one my colleagues last year set out an intelligent case for the export of waste from the UK for use as fuel in other European Union (EU) Member States, particularly highlighting that this need not be just a short-term fix. But the debate rumbles on, and has begun to take new forms, so I thought I would examine the numbers and see how the case for retaining our refuse derived fuel (RDF), also known as solid recovered fuel (SRF), for incineration in the UK, stacks up.

Read more on Exports: a waste of energy?…

by Peter Jones

LetsRecycle published an article recently that left me fuming. It seems to quote approvingly the view that ‘any moves to send material to mainland Europe should be seen as a “short-term recovery fix”, and not a long term solution to diverting waste from landfill’.

Read more on New UK incinerators double Dutch…