Using waste as a source of energy instead of recycling it has the potential to supply a fifth of the nation’s electricity by 2020, a report has urged.

Ian Arbon, lead author of the report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a visiting professor at the University of Newcastle, said the public were being deceived over the value of recycling. Materials such as metals were ideal for recycling but paper and plastic were worth more as fuel.

Speaking at the publication of A Wasted Opportunity, he said that paper recycling “wasn’t worth the effort”. Paper “is a nightmare to recycle in this country whereas it burns very well”.

Mr Arbon said that it was absolutely crucial for waste to be used for energy if Britain was to meet its target of getting 15 per cent of all energy from renewable sources by 2020. By then, he said, every town and village should have plants generating electricity from waste.

Burning waste in combustion chambers is one of four technologies used to turn rubbish into electricity. Food waste can be broken down in anaerobic digesters and two new technologies, gasification and pyrolysis, are being developed to consume rubbish.

“The Government should abandon its focus on recycling as the only way to rid us of landfills, as this is unachievable and is deceiving the public about what is really happening to waste,” the report said. Doorstep collections must continue, despite a sharp fall in prices for recycled materials, Lord Smith of Finsbury, chairman of the Environment Agency, said last night, calling on local authorities to “hold their nerve”. He told an environmentalist group of businesses and nongovernmental groups: “There can be no return to the bad old days of sending too much waste to landfill.” Paul Bettison, of the Local Government Association, said: “Councils are already ‘holding their nerve’.” They knew that recycling had to be maintained.

Times recommends

• Energy-saving ideas from switched-on professor
• Rooks are as clever with tools as chimpanzees
• Burping of the lambs blows roast off menu