This is late Summer 2006 and we become increasingly aware that the government has a number of issues that it wishes to push up the agenda for change in the near future. One is the commissioning of replacement nuclear power plants. Another is the promotion of energy from waste solutions to the problem of our ever increasing production of waste. Both these issues share a common core belief: that end of pipe solutions to mounting problems are the easiest option. In the former case tackling energy usage at the level of efficiency, conservation and small scale generation is seen as too difficult and too costly. A similar argument is being applied in support of energy from waste: all too frequently waste reduction, resource reuse and recycling promotion is seen as too difficult to implement because it will irritate industry and commerce or require too great an effort to win people over.

Yet the arguments that have been used to bolster the energy from waste claims that have come forward recently are pretty tenuous. Take the one that it will help to tackle climate change. A report by Friends of the Earth that came out in May suggests that this is a very dubious claim. The consultants who prepared this report also published one in 2002 for the National Resources and Waste Forum that suggested that fiscal and legislative measures were biased in favour of incineration and other energy from waste solutions and against recycling.

Where does this leave us? With the distinct feeling that government is unduly influenced by the dubious advice it gets from organisations such as the Chartered Institute of Waste Management, a body that grew out of the 'lets all stick it in a big hole or burn it' view of waste management and would still be there if not for enlightened legislation from Europe.