Is it a question of economic efficiency or environmental ethics?
Until now, kerbside recycling has involved separating waste into up to five different bins, but new sorting technology makes ‘single stream’ collection possible [Ref: Wasteage].Is this a good use of technology, or does the process of separating rubbish play an important role in changing attitudes towards consumption and encouraging us to do more further up the waste hierarchy (dead link) to eliminate, reduce and re-use before we need to recycle? Some say environmentalists would be hypocritical to ignore the environmental and economic case for incineration with energy recovery [Ref: Integra]. But incinerators are opposed because they are seen as visual eyesores with dangerous emissions. And Friends of the Earth argue that incinerators ‘all too often fail to provide community benefits in terms of education and local involvement in solving the problem of what we do with our rubbish’ [Ref: Friends of the Earth].
