The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has warned that the waste sector could generate “substantial emissions” by 2050 unless it implements “new policy urgently”. In the sixth Carbon Budget report published today (9 December), the committee set out a number of policy recommendations and said that “without substantial increases in policy ambition, and new policies in a range of areas, waste will become an increasing share of emissions”. Among the policy recommendations are a ban on biodegradable waste to landfill by 2025 and a halt to waste exports by 2030.
The CCC also recommended raising recycling targets and ensuring energy from waste is “constrained by waste prevention, re-use and recycling” policy. The report did however warn that the waste sector faces a “number of challenges” in reducing emissions. This includes a growing populations, “time lags”, long term contracts, and the current “lack of carbon capture” and storage infrastructure in the UK.
A total of nine recommendations were set out, listed below.
- Develop further policies to accelerate the transition to a circular economy
- Food waste policy needs to align with agricultural policy
- Biodegradable waste should be banned from landfill by 2025
- Exporting of waste from the UK should stop by 2030
- Recycling rate ambitions need to be raised
- Incentives for landfill operators to reduce methane emissions
- Energy-from-waste emissions continue to grow, but need to be constrained by waste prevention, re-use and recycling, and over time further mitigated via carbon capture and storage
- Composting facilities should be incentivised to install forced aeration
- Waste data needs improvement
Source: Let’s Recycle
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