The comments come within a detailed section of a report today published by the House of Commons Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee which looks at a range of topics including energy from waste.
The committee singles out the government’s approach to incineration saying that it is “one example of the problems with the waste strategy.”
Andrew Bennett, chairman of the sub-committee, which produced the report called Delivering sustainable waste management said: “We believe that incineration will never play a major role in truly sustainable waste management and cannot, and should not, be classified as producing renewable energy. Yet the strategy fails to set out what role the government believes waste incineration should play whilst also leaving the door open to a big expansion of large scale incineration of household waste.”
Not a renewable form of energy
The committee says that it does not accept that energy from waste incineration is a renewable form of energy. “Even if one considers that it meets the technical definition of renewable energy, it utterly fails to meet what might be called a common-sense interpretation.
The report states: “A waste stream is only sustainable in the most twisted definition of the word since sustainable waste management has as its cornerstone the minimisation of waste, and the explicit maintenance of waste streams for the purposes of incineration is in complete contradiction of this principal.
“By classifying energy from waste as renewable energy, a signal is sent to the public and business that it is acceptable to continue producing waste because renewable energy is generated from it.”
The environment committee report recommends:
- energy from waste incineration be excluded from counting towards the target of 10% of electricity to be generated from renewable sources
- the Government’s exclusion of energy from waste incineration from the Renewable Energy Obligation proposals be maintained
- the exemption of energy from waste incineration from the Climate Change Levy bet withdrawn
Muddled thinking
The committee’s views were described as muddled thinking by the Energy from Waste Association which said it was disappointed but not surprised with the report.
“Examples of muddled thinking occur throughout the report, said EWA director Tony Hirons. “The major one is probably where the committee states that ‘we believe that incineration will never play a major role in truly sustainable waste management, and should not, be classified as producing renewable energy.”
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