Council pushing for ‘best emissions controls’ on Edmonton incinerator amid pollution warnings

Cllr Rowena Champion. Photograph: Islington Council

Islington Council says it is working to ensure a giant incinerator it uses to burn rubbish and make electricity has “the best emissions controls” – after campaigners warned the government that it will have a “disastrous” climate impact.

Last week, 35 organisations, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Islington Climate Centre, signed an open letter to cabinet ministers urging them to “immediately withdraw support” for the new Edmonton waste treatment facility currently being installed in Enfield.

The letter pointed to a recent BBC investigation which found that “burning waste produces the same amount of greenhouse gases for each unit of energy as coal power”, making energy sourced from rubbish incinerators the UK’s “dirtiest form of power”.

The group has lobbied the government to 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 demanded that all development permits granted to the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) to install the incinerator be revoked.

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 said.

The campaigners’ letter also raised the NLWA’s own assessment that carbon capture technology tipped to mitigate the site’s CO2 emissions will not be installed until 2035 at the earliest.

Islington’s environment chief, Cllr Rowena Champion, said the council would work with the waste authority to ensure the facility operates within “very strict” environmental guidelines.

“Despite the positive steps that the council and its partners are taking to reduce waste, it’s very likely that the NLWA will have to deal with considerable amounts of residual waste for years to come.

“Planning for this is the most responsible way to make sure that NLWA can dispose of waste in the most environmentally-friendly way possible. It can also help ensure that carbon capture and storage — to which NLWA has made clear its commitment — is achieved as soon as it is feasible.

“The current Edmonton energy from waste plant is a very old facility, which is becoming less resilient as the years go past — it needs to be replaced now.

“We, along with the other councils that make up the NLWA, have pushed to provide a facility that will have the best emissions controls in the country.”

The waste body’s own strategy document states that the “successful implementation and operation of any post-combustion carbon capture will greatly depend on available funding and financing”.

But the NLWA also assures that the new facility will have the best air pollution control measures in the country, with particulate matter “400 times lower than the level set by the UK air quality objective”, even during peak times.

The authority said that it had undertaken a “robust” value for money exercise in line with guidance from the Treasury, and concluded that the Edmonton facility is “the best value for north London’s council taxpayers”.

In its report, the BBC had heard from scientists who said incinerating rubbish is a “disaster” for the climate.

The broadcaster’s analysis 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.

The Environmental Services Agency disputed the BBC’s findings, and have argued that emissions from dealing with waste are “challenging to avoid”

Cllr Champion stressed that Islington was committed to reducing total waste produced and increasing reuse and recycling in the borough.

“We’re taking action to address the climate emergency by creating a greener, healthier Islington,” she said.