Does ERF waste valuable resources?
If all locally generated waste was treated in an ERF facility, it might be considered wasteful. ERF forms an option under the recovery part of the waste hierarchy on which all waste strategy in this country is based and is preferred to disposal to landfill. At the top of the waste hierarchy is waste minimisation, followed by reuse, recycling and composting – but the success of those activities will naturally depend on the public’s co-operation. Since there are limits on how much we can landfill in future, recovering energy from the remaining waste will help us meet our EU landfill diversion targets and avoid large fines from the Government. ERF disposes of residual waste that would otherwise, in most cases, end up in a landfill, without recovering much of the energy that it contains.
