A few years ago, I spent an interesting if pungent day visiting two of Europe’s most advanced waste processing facilities, a state-of-the-art rubbish dump near Espoo in Finland and a power station in nearby Vantaa. Together, they are playing a pivotal role in greater Helsinki’s push towards a circular economy, ensuring that every scrap of the city’s municipal waste is either recycled or turned into energy or heat, so nothing is sent to landfill. I remember thinking, “How brilliant, I wish we could do that”.

It turns out we in the UK can,…