Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution of the former Parliamentary-Under Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of 9 May 2019, Official Report, column 643, whether it remains his Department’s assessment that additional residual waste energy capacity above that already planned to 2020 should not be needed.

In developing our Resources and Waste Strategy (RWS), my department considered the amount of residual waste treatment capacity that will be required for England to avoid any negative impact on future recycling ambitions and the major waste reforms we are implementing. The assessment concluded that significant additional residual waste energy recovery capacity such as incineration or advanced conversion technologies – above that already operating or planned to 2020 – would not necessarily be needed to meet an ambition of no more than 10% municipal waste to landfill by 2035, if a 65% municipal recycling rate is achieved by that same year. This assumed refuse derived fuel exports remain at 2018 levels. However, if energy recovery continues to provide a better environmental alternative to landfill, more investment to reduce tonnages of municipal waste to landfill further would deliver environmental benefits.

In accordance with the commitment given in the RWS we continue to monitor residual waste infrastructure and will publish an updated assessment in the coming months.