Reduce, re-use, recycle
Residual waste is the waste left over after reducing, re-using and recycling all you can. The best way to avoid having to treat residual waste is to not produce it in the first place, but for some materials, this is unavoidable.
You can find out more about how to recycle in your area by visiting the links opposite.
Big changes are coming over the next three years to the way council waste services are funded and delivered, which should create a more uniform set of recycling services across the UK and encourage us all to recycle more.
Alternative technologies
All around the world, the waste left over after recycling is managed either through landfill or through various types of thermal treatment where the waste is burned, and there is no viable alternative to these options operating reliably at scale.
Although there are emerging technologies that may allow for alternative treatment of residual waste in future (for example, by converting waste to aviation fuel) these potential solutions are in their infancy; require incoming waste to have a very low proportion of plastic in it to achieve a more sustainable outcome than conventional Energy-from-Waste (EfW); and have not been successfully demonstrated at the necessary scale to reliably meet the region’s waste management requirements.
Although final costs for the TV ERF contract are still subject to a live procurement process, there is no viable alternative solution which has been proven at scale, which is significantly cheaper, and which fulfils the same vital role as the TV ERF.
