Hackney Council has assured residents that a new incinerator used by the local authority to burn rubbish is “the least environmentally damaging” method of waste management, despite warnings that it is “the dirtiest form of power”.
Last week 35 bodies, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Sustainable Hackney, signed an open letter to cabinet ministers Ed Miliband and Steve Reed urging the government to “immediately withdraw support” for the new Edmonton incinerator in Enfield.
The letter raised findings from a recent BBC report which found that “burning waste produces the same amount of greenhouse gases for each unit of energy as coal power”, making electricity from waste incinerators the UK’s “dirtiest form of power”.
The groups demanded that the government pull its funding for the new facility and its district heat network connections, which use the heat generated by burning waste to supply energy to multiple places — known as “energy from waste” or EFW.
They also insisted the government revokes development permits to install the incinerator granted to the North London Waste Authority (NLWA).
Among other impacts, “failure to take these steps would undermine the Government’s efforts to decarbonise the electricity grid and provide clean power by 2030”, they argued.
Work began on the new Edmonton incinerator being built at Edmonton Eco Park started in September 2022 and the incinerator is expected to be fully up and running in 2027.
Despite the warnings, Cllr Sarah Young, cabinet member for climate change, environment and transport, said the new “energy recovery facility” being built in the neighbouring borough is “currently the least environmentally damaging way to manage non-recyclable waste”.
“This project ensures we have a modern, publicly-owned facility with the latest technology to minimise emissions, provide lower carbon energy for local homes and businesses, and reduce the need for fossil fuels,” she said.
NLWA’s chair, Cllr Clyde Loakes, has also written to Ed Miliband in light of the group’s demands.
He argued that not only are there “no grounds” to revoke the permit, but cancelling the delivery of the facility would hurt the UK’s decarbonisation efforts.
“The network in Edmonton is already built and is ready to take heat energy from the new energy recovery facility.
“The impacts of not completing [it] would be detrimental to north London residents and our efforts to tackle the climate emergency.
“It would deny residents a safe, clean and low-carbon solution for managing their waste and it would deny local homes and businesses the chance to benefit from low-carbon heating and hot water,” he stated.
The BBC’s investigation included warnings from scientists that incinerating rubbish is a “disaster for the climate”.
It found that, while the UK has abandoned coal power, the number of active incinerators in England has increased from 38 to 52 in the last five years.
Cllr Young suggested the issues of environmental impact were to do with the quantity of waste, rather than emissions impact from burning it.
‘’One of the long term goals in our climate action plan is to reduce non-recyclable waste by encouraging recycling and reuse, and advocating for systemic change to tackle unnecessary production and consumption.
“Ultimately, the less waste there is, the less there is to burn. Hackney offers excellent recycling services to its residents, including weekly recycling across the borough and weekly food waste for all houses and nearly all flats.
“We maintain a network of over 65 public recycling banks for electronics, textiles, light bulbs and batteries as well as mixed paper, card, plastic and glass. It is fundamental that we get people using the range of recycling services available to them.”
The Environmental Services Agency have contested the BBC’s findings and said that emissions from dealing with waste are “challenging to avoid”.
Figures released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in December 2022 showed residual carbon dioxide emissions from EFW increased from 2.2 million tonnes in 2016 to 2.7 million tonnes in 2020.
The same report found that, in the same period, residual CO2 emissions from landfill—the alternative waste disposal method—fell by nearly 1 million tonnes.
Critics of the “oversized” facility also say its costs have “spiralled” out of control, recently increasing by 25 per cent to £1.5 billion.
This has delayed the project by two years, the NLWA revealed in August.
Their letter points to the waste authority’s own assessment that carbon capture technology tipped to help mitigate the site’s CO2 emissions would not be installed in the Edmonton incinerator until 2035 at the earliest, “if at all”.
NLWA’s strategy document states: “The successful implementation and operation of any post-combustion carbon capture will greatly depend on available funding and financing”.
It also explains that carbon mitigation for the facility will also need a suitable transport and storage network connection for the [facility], alongside planning permission.
NLWA has said its analysis—in line with Treasury guidance— shows that energy from waste is “the best value for north London’s council tax payers”.
