Recycling could add to global warming

RECYCLING could be adding to global warming rather than helping reduce it, a senior government adviser said today.

Peter Jones, a former director of waste firm Biffa and now an adviser to environment ministers, said the amount of greenhouses gases produced from the collection, transporting and processing of recycled rubbish was defeating the point.

He called for a review of Labour's policy on waste and suggested Britain's rubbish could simply be burned to generate electricity.

He said local incineration might have a lesser impact on global warming.