More than half of rubbish in Telford is burned

Between April 2017 and March 2018, 43,180 tonnes of rubbish was burned in the area, new figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have revealed.

The vast majority was used as fuel to generate heat and electricity at waste power facilities.

More than 40,000 tonnes of waste was recycled in the town.

Elsewhere, the Shropshire authority has one of the highest recycling rates in England, with 91,297 tonnes of rubbish being recycled or composted.

Incineration was the second most common way of disposing of rubbish in Shropshire.

About 67,058 tonnes of waste was sent to incineration plants to produce electricity – 41 per cent of the total.

Campaigners have called for a tax on incineration due to the amount of pollution it causes.

Across England burning rubbish is becoming more common. About 42 per cent of the country’s waste is incinerated compared to 30 per cent three years ago.

A cross-party report launched in July in the House of Lords called on the Government to take oversight of the industry and introduce an incineration tax. Research revealed that incinerators in England polluted more last year than a quarter-of-a-million lorries travelling 75,000 miles.

Libby Forrest, policy and parliamentary affairs officer at Environmental Services Association, said the wider use of incineration should be celebrated.

She said: “Energy from waste has increased because we are successfully moving away from landfill, which is more damaging to the environment.”

Rubbish dumped in landfills accounted for only one per cent of all rubbish in Telford and three per cent in Shropshire.