The ESA, trade body for the UK's waste management industry, was responding to the decision announced earlier in the day by Energy Minister Brian Wilson.
A statement from the association said that it believes that EfW has a valuable part to play in recovering value from residual wastes within an integrated waste management system.
The ESA added: “Increasingly waste must be recognised as a resource – either to be recycled or as a source of recovered energy. EU laws require massive diversion of waste from landfill. A balanced approach is required to meet this challenge and energy recovery is an effective and environmentally sound way to manage the waste fractions that cannot be recycled or composted.
There has been some jubilation at the decision, particularly from London Mayor Ken Livingstone and Greenpeace.
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, said: “I welcome the Secretary of State's decision on the Edmonton incinerator. We need to reduce and recycle waste as much as possible. Therefore I do not support the expansion of mass burn incineration while new, more environmentally-friendly technologies to dispose of waste are developed. Policies on how London can do this are set out in my Waste Strategy which the public will be consulted on in June.”
Greenpeace campaigner Mark Strutt said: “The Government has done the right thing. Stopping this mega-incinerator is good news for the health of British people and good news for the environment. The decision to stop Edmonton B will have massive implications for other proposals to burn waste and is a body blow to the whole incineration industry. It seems that the Government has finally got the message that incineration is a terrible way of dealing with household rubbish and people don’t want to be poisoned by these polluting plants.”
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