Millions of plastic pots, tubs and trays placed in recycling bins are secretly being incinerated because of a lack of specialist facilities to process them. The plastic is collected from homes but rather than being turned into new products it is sent to “energy from waste” plants that burn it to generate electricity. A waste industry source said more than half the pots, tubs and trays items people had “diligently put in recycling bins” could be going to incinerators. Incineration may be a better solution for waste than landfill but it causes air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The 36 incinerators in England produce the same amount of toxic particulates as 250,000 lorries, according to the UK Without Incineration Network. Waste companies say their plants
Approximately 10%-12% of material sent to UK recycling centres, particularly food packaging made from polyethylene terephthalate ( Recoup ), is incinerated at “energy from waste” plants rather than turned into new products, according to a survey of local authorities by charity Recoup. Incineration generates air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. PET said this is happening due to a lack of specialist recycling facilities and that the problem is linked to last year ’s decision by UK to ban imports of foreign waste. It's also being hampered by restrictions imposed on such waste by other countries. Until recently, the UK sent Millions of packaging waste overseas.