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3 days ago
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Half of England’s waste is now being burned, at astronomical expense to local councils (“Anger at plans for 41 ‘dirty’ incinerators”, News). Yet Defra has, for years, resisted calls for the standardisation of waste materials collected or the separate collection of dry recyclables and organics, but it is now to implement such measures through its “simpler recycling” schemes in March 2025.
The government’s recognition of incinerator overcapacity and its plans for better collection systems is quite a breakthrough but it is not the ambition that is needed to move us to a circular economy. A recycling target of 65% by 2035 will not stop a reliance on incineration. To achieve this, all stages of the waste hierarchy – recycling, reuse and repair, eco-design and extended product lifespans – need to be driven by design.
Jane Green (former director of Zero Waste England)
Llangrannog, Ceredigion
Waste incinerators do generate emissions while they generate heat and/or electricity, even if they prevent waste from going to landfill where it also produces emissions. However, recycling and composting are not a perfect emission-free alternative, as some campaign groups imply. So waste incineration is not “all bad” and recycling and composting are not “all good”; the only real solution is for us humans to produce less waste.
Michael Miller
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Paternity leave key to pay gap
Your article (“The Sex Discrimination Act is turning 50, so how much longer before women have equal pay?”, Comment) does not mention one key influence on the gender pay gap that could be closed in a single simple act. Paternity leave.
Studies show that because men don’t spend time with children in the first few weeks of their lives, they never learn the key childcare skills. It means that the father is always the secondary parent.
There is a study that suggests you will raise the lifetime earnings of mothers by 7% if you just extend the current two weeks paternity to four weeks. Imagine what would happen if paternity were equal to maternity? Our society might start expecting men to pull equal weight in child rearing.
The gender pay gap has had nothing to do with perceptions of capability for decades. It is an artefact of unequal legislation.
Martin Hornsey
Newquay, Cornwall
No cop-out for Keir Starmer
I read Isabel Hardman’s column with interest (“With a new year ahead, there’s no better time for Keir Starmer to start playing good cop”, Comment). The pairing of the prime minister and his chancellor as doom-laden bearers of fiscal reality has gone on for far too long. Keir Starmer does indeed need to harness his football fervour, show passion, unfurrow his brow and generally raise the nation’s spirits, before we all give up the ghost over his plethora of promises, pledges and political platitudes.
Judith A Daniels
Cobholm, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
Nuclear is part of the mix
Renewables are key to our energy future – but they can’t do it on their own (“Labour donor Dale Vince questions ‘spiralling costs’ of Sizewell C”, News). Recent winter weather demonstrated once again the inherent limitations of staking everything on renewables: in November, for example, there were times when gas was around 60% of our energy mix.
Nuclear has to be a part of our mix – and Sizewell C will learn the lessons and build on the achievements of Hinkley Point C. Thanks to our sister project in Somerset, we’ve got key strategic advantages: we’ve got a fixed design; we’ve got a capable and industrialised supply chain in place; and we’re supporting that with early manufacturing and storage, and efficient off-site manufacturing.
This gives us greater cost certainty and clarity of schedule. So we’re in a strong position to deliver clean energy to six million homes, giving this country energy security with lower bills for consumers in the long term.
Julia Pyke, Joint managing director, Sizewell C, Suffolk
Escalation risks Russia war
Peter Pomerantsev seems to want the EU (and Britain) to shift to a wartime economy and prioritise weapons production over all else (“Less ‘European family’, more howitzers: Ukraine needs hardware, not cosy words”, Comment). This views Russia as a mortal threat to all of Europe if its assault on Ukraine is not stopped. It is a very depressing scenario, because the inevitable outcome is another general European war, with Nato declaring war on Russia. Such a war could only be brought to an end by an invasion of Russia and Nato troops occupying Moscow. Is this really what Pomerantsev wants?
Mark Swindale
Brodick, Isle of Arran
End rhino horn medicine use
It is somewhat surprising that Martin Wikelski (“Legalise rhino horn trade to protect the species, says expert”, News) seems not to consider that the most effective way of protecting rhinos would be to remove demand in the first place.
If China and other eastern nations want to gain the confidence of western markets, they should act to educate their populations into adopting conventional medicines and do away with the so-called traditional styles.
John Starbuck
Lepton, Huddersfield
Give the US a break
Relax, Will Hutton (“Britain will never be great again until we stop flogging our top companies to the US”, Comment). Imperial dominance from the Romans onwards is cyclical. We had our turn with the Industrial Revolution and our less than glorious empire. The US is entitled to its turn, with a far gentler legacy, once it had been shamed to abolish slavery. And ask any outward-looking American – London is still recognised as the cultural and tourist capital of the world by a country mile.
Keith Barnes
Frome, Somerset
Top art in the Wright place
My gosh, that room of Joseph Wright’s in Derby Art Gallery (“Sheffield’s museums show how art comes to life when it is connected to place”, Comment) is as good a room of painting as you’ll see anywhere in Europe. Masterful use of light. The awe and wonder of the scientific age captured in oils. Hugely underrated.
Phil McClure
Warrington, Cheshire
