 Waste incineration is fundamentally unsustainable, recovering only a tenth of the energy used to make the products in our rubbish. Recycling recovers four times more energy than incineration.  Incinerators always undermine recycling. Dumfries &amp; Galloway Council abolished kerbside recycling of paper, plastics and textiles to feed its new incinerator. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government is spending sweetie money on recycling   just ?5 million to improve plastic recycling since 2009.  Scotland should be following the example of places  like San Francisco, which is recycling 77% of waste and aims for 100% by 2020 with no incineration or landfill.  The Scottish Government claims that its new  zero-waste  regulations will prevent recyclable waste being burned. In fact, the regulations state there will be no minimum standards for the extraction of recyclable materials at waste treatment facilities. Worse, the Government has removed the 25% cap on waste incineration, leaving the way open for unlimited incineration.  The waste industry falsely claims that councils will need to burn waste to avoid fines for breaching European landfill quotas. In fact, these quotas only apply to the biodegradable portion of municipal waste, i.e. things that can rot and produce methane.  Waste incinerators emit hundreds of dangerous chemicals. Many, such as carcinogenic dioxins and heavy metals, are only measured twice a year. The Scottish Environment Protection agency (Sepa) refuses to demand continual monitoring of dioxins, despite the fact that this is required in other countries.  The Government states that in 2014 it will carry out an  initial survey  to check that recyclable waste is not being incinerated. By then it will be too late. The incinerators will have been built, and local communities will be condemned to 30 years of breathing poisonous fumes under Sepa s discredited monitoring regime.