Anger as Shropshire recycling is sent to incinerator

Heather Kidd, Shropshire Councillor for Chirbury and Worthen said: "Business waste has to be paid for by businesses – such as pubs and schools. It must be paid for and collected separately from domestic waste by law.

"However, imagine my surprise when I was contacted by a pub in my division who told me that their glass waste goes straight to the Shrewsbury incinerator.

"This flies in the face of all the initiatives run by the Government and Local Authorities over the last twenty years to maximize recycling.

"Veolia and Biffa, the two main companies who collect this waste are both saying that it is not financially viable for them to recycle items such as glass and plastic bottles despite the fact that they are easily recyclable.

"I know have a pub, an equine centre and a shop that really want to recycle their waste materials and are charged by law to 'keep waste to a minimum by doing everything you reasonably can to prevent, reuse, recycle or recover waste' but are unable to do so because the councils contractors would prefer to burn it.

"There is also a big question about responsibility here. At a time when we are all urged to cut waste and recycle more it is quite shocking to hear that this is going on.

Pressure

"Regulation and enforcement is supposed to be carried out by the Environment Agency but this is patently not happening.

"We all need to put pressure on the Agency and the Environment Minister to get a grip on this. If this situation is replicated across the UK we could be seeing thousands of tons of recyclable materials going up in smoke every day.

"I will be writing to the Environment Minister on this issue and urge anyone with similar concerns to due likewise."

Mukhtar Shaikh from the Environment Agency said: “Waste operators have obligations under the 2011 Waste Regulations regarding how waste should be dealt with.

"This includes a hierarchy as to whether waste should or can be prepared for re-use, recycled, used for energy recovery or disposed as landfill.

"Whilst we are the enforcement authority for the 2011 Waste Regulations, we are not required to specify how operators comply with this hierarchy when they collect or transfer waste."

A spokesman for Veolia said: "Any material that we collect as part of a commercial recycling contract is recycled and is not sent to an Energy Recovery Facility unless in exceptional circumstances.

"There are occasions when we are not able to enter into commercial recycling contracts, but we are always keen to talk to customers to help find recycling solutions to their issues. Veolia takes great pride in championing the waste hierarchy"

A spokesman for Biffa said: "Biffa does not incinerate recyclable waste from businesses in Shrewsbury. All the commercial waste we collect in the area is taken for sorting and then all recyclable materials are sent for processing at our plants in the Midlands and elsewhere in the UK. We do not operate an incinerator in Shrewsbury.”