Councillor Keith Melton, Portfolio Holder for Climate Change at Newark and Sherwood District Council, visits Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) in Sheffield

While the best thing we can all do for the environment is to produce less rubbish and recycle more, whatever we do to achieve higher and higher recycling rates there will always be some rubbish left over that cannot be recycled and needs to be dealt with.

 

There are lots of ways to deal with unrecyclable waste, including burying it in the ground at a landfill site, however, this is extremely damaging to the planet and we want to do our best to stop this happening. One of our best options for dealing with unrecyclable waste is to use the rubbish to generate heat and electricity, which is exactly what is happening at the new ERF in Sheffield, where waste is safely incinerated to recover electricity including 30,000 tonnes of residual waster per annum from Newark and Sherwood.

 

I found the tour really informative and wish others too could have the opportunity to understand more about the work of an ERF and the importance of using waste that might otherwise go to landfill to power our homes and help tackle the climate emergency."