Mixed waste sorting to vastly reduce the burning of plastics by 2025.
This event organised by Extinction Rebellion Zero Waste (XR Zero Waste) on April 28 provided an overview of the potential for sorting and recovery of materials from residual (black bag) waste for recycling, so as to sharply reduce the need for incineration and landfilling, while we still are stuck with too much black bag waste. Residual mixed waste sorting facilities effectively separate out wastes into single streams and compress them into bales to ship these to recycling plants, including bales of plastics, metals and drink cartons. They are instrumental because they can be built in a just a few years and can reduce the burning of plastics by more than 70% by 2025, so as to swiftly end the burning of nearly all plastics and enable their recycling.
Camden Council Action Plan
‘We call on Extinction Rebellion to work with the NLWA and the boroughs in areas of common interest, such as the vital practical and campaigning work to reduce waste and increase recycling for the benefit of the planet and future generations.’
—Cllr Clyde Loakes, chair of the North London Waste Authority (NLWA), April 2020
XR Zero Waste today released an illustrated, heavily annotated waste management brief that provides ten action points designed to help Camden Council cut its non-recyclable waste by 65% and reach at least 70% recycling by 2030. It encourages the council to take urgent steps to stop sending its waste to landfill and incineration, as the borough still relies on these disposal routes for more than 75% of its waste. Unless both landfill and incineration are phased out, the UK will not be able to deliver on its net zero or circular economy ambitions.
The document is the first in a series of local authority-specific briefs designed to spur and support waste reduction of at least 50% and an increase to 70% recycling by 2030, in line with the Climate Change Committee’s recommendations to the UK. The series aims to reorient local authorities towards a zero waste goal based on a strategy that favours waste prevention, reuse, and recycling, following the example set by Wales, the first country in the UK to have embraced this vision of the future.