Further supplementary memorandum submitted
by Friends of the Earth
With your permission, Friends of the Earth would
like to offer two brief observations on the oral evidence presented
to the Energy and Climate Change Committee on Wednesday 20th January
2010, in regard to energy-from-waste plants in the Renewables
NPS. In particular we focus these comments in response to Mr Asquith's
and Ms Hartnell's answers to Question 296 (Mr Weir).
1. It may be the case that Mr Asquith's company
does have the equipment to maximise recycling and to produce a
biomass-only fraction which they intend to use to produce energy.
However, it is important to note that this is not the case with
the mainstream incineration industry, which is the one most likely
to be using the NPS process. There are already two NPS applications
from Covanta to build very large incinerators of mixed waste.
This mixed waste will inevitably include large amounts of fossil-fuel
derived carbon, and large amounts of material that would be better
recycled, and will be burnt in an inefficient incinerator with
consequent CO2 emissions (see "Dirty Truths" report).[81]
We would therefore argue that Mr Asquith's reply does not provide
adequate reassurance that such plants would not damage reuse and
recycling, the lower carbon options.
2. On the idea that incineration and high
recycling go "hand in hand", it is true that those countries
that moved early in getting material out of landfill tended to
focus on both of these approaches. However, many of them are now
encountering a problem from incessant demand from incinerators
preventing improvements in recycling. Denmark is a particularly
good example, where regions with high incineration have lower
recycling whilst regions with low incineration do more recycling:
|
| Region | Recycling
| Incineration | Landfill
|
|
| Hovedstaden | 21%
| 77% | 2%
|
| Nordjyllnad | 29%
| 63% | 8%
|
| Sjælland | 31%
| 59% | 10%
|
| Midtjylland | 40%
| 53% | 7%
|
| Syddanmark | 41%
| 52% | 6%
|
|
| 2005 data for Denmark's household waste, from Waste Centre Denmark (Storage for incineration classified with incineration)
|
It's further worth noting that Denmark's recycling rate (41%
municipal waste in 2009) is well behind levels achieved by other
regions of Europe. For example Flanders in Belgium recycles more
than 70% of its municipal waste—they have achieved this
over the last ten years, focussing their policies on prevention,
reuse and recycling, and they have deliberately avoided creating
any additional incineration capacity due to their concerns that
this would impact on recycling rates.
February 2010
81
Friends of the Earth Dirty Truths (2006) http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/dirty_truths.pdf.
This is a summary of Eunomia (2006), A changing climate for
energy from waste, www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/changing_climate.pdf. Back
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