Government departments are trying to slash their spending in order to cut the deficit.

There is big potential to save money through dealing with our waste more sustainably. Nearly £2 billion of private finance initiative (PFI) funding is currently allocated to planned large waste infrastructure projects. These projects would also require huge amounts of money from council tax payers for decades to come.

The majority of PFI waste projects are incinerators, which:

contribute to climate change.
destroy precious recyclable materials.
create far fewer jobs than recycling.
represent very poor value for money for tax payers.

At the moment England dumps and burns over £650 million of valuable resources each year.

Research from Friends of the Earth shows that if material currently being landfilled or incinerated was recycled instead, it would:

save money.
slash emissions equivalent to 6 million cars.
reduce the need to import materials from abroad.
create tens of thousands of new UK jobs.

The Government must stop wasting public money on incineration,
instead they could prioritise comparatively low-cost options such as:

effective, high quality, source separated recycling systems.
anaerobic digestion.
reuse services.

Source:Friends of the Earth website