The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) formally signed a £683 million contract with Spanish construction company Acciona to build the energy from waste (EfW) plant in January 2022.
Works were announced as “fully underway” in September 2022. The plant was originally scheduled to be opened next year but has been delayed to 2027.
The EfW plant is one element of the North London Heat and Power Project, which was granted development consent in 2017 and has been under construction since 2019.
The “Stop the Edmonton Incinerator Now” coalition is calling for the government to withdraw permits and stop investment into the site.
Addressed to energy secretary Ed Miliband and environment secretary Steve Reed, the open letter cited a recent BBC investigation which labelled EfW incinerators as the UK’s “dirtiest form of power”.
In October, the UK waste sector issued several statements which disagreed with the BBC’s conclusions.
The coalition’s letter claimed that construction of the Edmonton incinerator is “entirely surplus to the incineration capacity required to process London’s waste”.
Carina Millstone, founder of the Stop the Edmonton Incinerator Now coalition, said: “The government may claim it is committed to clean energy, net zero, and the circular economy, but the new, publicly owned incinerator in Edmonton means environmental targets will never be met.
“We call on the government to show genuine resolve and leadership in tackling the climate, waste, and air pollution crises and to pull the plug on this destructive and toxic waste of taxpayer money.”
In its own open letter to Ed Miliband, the NLWA refuted the claims made by the coalition.
Councillor Clyde Loakes, chair of the NLWA, said: “NLWA is replacing the oldest energy from waste plant in the country, on the same site, with a facility that will have the best emissions controls in the country.
“The new facility will support a heat network for thousands of residents and provide the best value for the taxpayer. Cancelling this project halfway through construction would be the worst possible outcome for the environment, for our seven constituent boroughs, and our residents who pay council tax.
“By replacing a 50-year-old plant, we will maximise the energy created by including sustainable heat, which is essential for a net-zero-carbon economy. The flexible capacity of the new facility will mean it does not undermine our innovative waste reduction efforts such as pioneering mattress, polystyrene and hard plastic recycling schemes.”
What exactly are the campaigners calling for?
Campaigners have issued three specific calls to the government.
Firstly, the coalition wants the government to revoke the Development Consent Order (DCO) granted by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The NLWA has said that the DCO was granted following two rounds of public consultation and open hearings. A request to judicially review the decision was refused in 2019.
The waste authority added that since the DCO was granted, 30 facilities have been approved in the UK and that none “offer the same world-class environmental features” as the Edmonton incinerator.
In 2022, the NLWA said will ensure that the facility will be able to install carbon capture after 2030 and says it will ensure that the plant “will never undermine recycling or create a demand for rubbish. The plant can be run at a lower capacity if systemic change reduces waste in the future.
Secondly, campaigners have called on the Environment Agency (EA) to revoke the permit it granted for the incinerator in June 2017. The NLWA said that “there are no grounds to revoke the permit”.
Loakes responded: “Removing the environmental permit of a facility with the best environmental controls in the country would mean all energy from waste permits in the UK would need to be removed, leaving no alternative but to send all of the country’s waste to landfill or overseas.”
Finally, the coalition has called on the government to withhold all direct and indirect funding for the Edmonton incinerator and its district heat network connections.
Loakes continued: “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 the energy recovery facility 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.”
Mike Childs, head of policy at Friends of the Earth, said: “These giant EfW incinerators are similar to coal-fired power stations or gas plants as they also rely on fossil fuels to create energy – such as plastic made from oil and gas.
“We should be trying to recycle waste materials rather than burn them, and incinerators are known to reduce local recycling rates. The government should say no to this polluting incinerator in one of the most deprived areas of London, that could have massive health and wellbeing impacts for residents.”
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