‘Mixed plastic waste that cannot be sorted for the purpose of recycling ends up in the oceans’

• IT saddens me that XR Zero Waste is so fond of quoting figures out of context that they can’t see the wood for the trees, (Now go out there and greenwash! February 10).

Your correspondents should know that I am an enthusiastic proponent of an aggressive approach to decarbonising our (the UK’s as well as the world’s) economy.

But let me turn to your anonymous correspondents’ penchant for hiding behind out-of-context facts and figures to prevent a perfectly sensible, if modest, staging post to decarbonisation.

First, let’s consider how we currently generate and collect domestic waste.

We have been led to believe that our green, brown, and black bins mean that we can present waste in such a way that all materials, and particularly combustibles in green bins, can be recycled.

This is patently false as all the heaps of mixed plastic waste that cannot be sorted for the purpose of recycling, originally shipped to China but latterly to the Philippines, Turkey and other locations, will attest.

Most of this ends up in the oceans. Furthermore this waste is not much different in composition from so-called non-recyclable waste (black bins) and it is similar in energy content (that is, proportion of combustibles).

Hence it is clear that so-called “recyclable waste” stretches the technology past its limits and this would only be made worse by adding general waste to it.

So the broad question is what should we do (sensibly) with this source of fuel?

It certainly will, in the near future, provide a source of primary energy that in principle displaces the most damaging conventional fuels (coal and oil); meaning that these are kept in the ground.

Why not design a plant and system that takes maximum advantage of its proximity to the source of fuel (that is, large urban areas). That way advantage is taken of not paying directly for transportation of the fuel.

If it is burnt in a plant which, if designed properly, its emissions are disposed of in the least harmful way; highly ‘toxic’ components can be removed before they are emitted but the majority of the combustion products are disposed of through chimneys which eject (usually at an elevated temperature) into the atmosphere.

This is the most effective way of dispersing components which might otherwise be detrimental to health. Health consequences from “pollution” result mainly from long-term exposure at high concentrations.

A well-designed industrial plant which meets the standards required (for example, the EFW, energy from waste, facility) will thus have little impact on the surrounding population.

MILES SEAMAN, NW2