Hackney Council has told East London residents that a new energy recovery facility is the “least environmentally damaging way to manage non-recyclable waste”.
The energy recovery plant in Edmonton, which the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) is building, was due to open next year but has been delayed until 2027.
Hackney Council has now responded to an open letter from campaigners that urged the government to withdraw support for the project.
Councillor Sarah Young, Cabinet member for Climate Change, Environment and Transport, called Energy-from-Waste (EfW) the least environmentally damaging way to manage non-recyclable waste.
Young also said landfill has “25 times” the climate impact compared to waste incineration.
Waste incineration produces carbon dioxide, while landfill produces roughly equal amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, which is 25 times more damaging to the atmosphere according to IPPC guidelines.
“Stop The Edmonton Incinerator Now”
The open letter was signed by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and clean air campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah CBE.
It was the latest step in a campaign to stop the Edmonton incinerator from being built.
The letter highlighted a report by the BBC that called EfW facilities the UK’s “dirtiest form of power” after finding they generated the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions for each unit of energy as coal power.
The Environmental Services Association (ESA) contested the findings, saying it is “incorrect” to compare EfW GHG emissions with other forms of energy generation without accounting for the emissions it avoids by diverting waste from landfill.
CIWM (The Chartered Institution of Wastes Management) said the BBC’s analysis raised some important issues but also “omits a number of key factors”.
Not everything can be recycled, and councils will still need a solution to deal with waste.
The open letter said that a failure to withdraw support for the facility would “undermine the government’s efforts” to provide clean power by 2030 and its commitment to creating circular economy roadmaps.
In response to calls from campaigners opposed to the project, NLWA Chair Cllr Clyde Loakes, MBE, published an open letter to Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Loakes wrote: “Not everything can be recycled, and councils will still need a solution to deal with waste.
“A modern, efficient energy recovery facility involves the lowest greenhouse gas emissions of all available options, with recent media coverage failing to identify a suitable alternative to landfill.
“Electricity is a valuable by-product of energy-from-waste plants, but their main purpose is to provide the least carbon polluting solution to a serious waste problem.”
