Industrial and Commercial Waste Incineration Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Wera Hobhouse
Main Page: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)Department Debates - View all Wera Hobhouse's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Industrial and Commercial Waste Incineration
Wera Hobhouse Excerpts(4 years, 5 months ago)
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Stephen Doughty
My hon. Friend and I take slightly different approaches to this issue. In the waste hierarchy pyramid, which will be familiar to many people, incineration of waste is only just above landfill; indeed, there is some controversy about that. The key thing is that we need to reduce the waste that we create in the first place, so that we do not have to burn it, put it into landfill or export it, as he suggests.
Stephen Doughty
I will not give way to my hon. Friend, because I have done so already. I will give way to others shortly.
I thank all my constituents who have raised concerns, and I thank the various campaigning organisations who have provided evidence for the debate.
Wera Hobhouse
My main concern is that we do not know about the end destination of our household waste. Stuff gets incinerated or recycled, but it may actually go further afield or get dumped at sea. Does he agree that an onus or a legal obligation on councils to disclose the end destination of household waste would be a way forward?
Stephen Doughty
I absolutely agree with the hon. Lady’s point. Indeed, a lack of data on that is an issue I will come on to very shortly.
It is clear that this is a topic we need to talk more about, given the climate emergency that we face. In 2016, the commercial industrial sectors produced 41.1 million tonnes of waste, which is some 18% of all waste produced in the UK, but there is no clear published breakdown of how waste from those sectors is treated. The average UK incinerator produces approximately 230,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. To provide a comparison, 200,000 tonnes of CO2 is equivalent to 6.1 million cars driving from Cardiff to London per year. That is quite an extraordinary comparison. In Wales alone, there are already 10 sites for proposed incinerators, nine of which are in south Wales, where two are already located.