WHAT ON EARTH SUMMER 2022
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Scottish Government to ban new incinerators By Eilidh Stanners, Communications Officer In June, we welcomed some progress on the way waste is managed in Scotland: the Scottish Government committed to banning new incinerators, after the move was called for by an independent review. Incinerators contribute to climate change by emitting greenhouse gases from the waste they burn. They also make it more difficult to ensure potentially recyclable material is not wasted instead. The independent review published a report on 10 May which showed the real scale of the nation’s incineration problem. It showed
the need for rapid action to prevent the loss of valuable resources, and stop the climate-wrecking emissions being caused by burning plastics. Burning plastic releases more carbon than coal, and the only way to cut emissions from incineration for good is to stop burning waste. The total amount of waste incinerated in Scotland in 2019 was 1.23 megatonnes (that’s a billion kilograms!), double the amount in 2011. The capacity analysis from the report shows that in five years time Scotland will have more incineration capacity than there is available waste to burn.
Photo: Simone Tramonte / Climate Visuals Countdown
