Burning Waste Becomes UK’s Dirtiest Energy Source

With a growing reliance on waste incineration for energy, concerns are rising over its environmental impact, including high carbon emissions and harmful pollutants.

Glenn Burgess

Credits: Freeipk

Burning household waste in large incinerators to produce electricity is now the most polluting way the UK makes power.

Nearly half of the rubbish from UK homes, including more plastic, is now being burned. Scientists are warning that this is a “climate disaster,” and some are even asking for a ban on new incinerators.

A five-year study found that burning waste releases as much greenhouse gas per unit of energy as coal, which the UK stopped using last month. However, the Environmental Services Association, representing waste companies, disagreed, saying that emissions from handling waste are “hard to avoid.”

Around 15 years ago, UK government grew worried about the harmful gases from dumping household waste in landfills & their impact on climate change. To address this, they raised the taxes councils had to pay for burying waste.

To avoid high costs, councils started using energy-from-waste plants—incinerators that generate electricity by burning rubbish.

The number of these incinerators has increased, rising from 38 to 52 in England over the past five years. Currently, about 3.1% of the UK’s energy comes from waste incineration.

The Expansion of the UK's Incineration System

This is true for food waste, which releases fewer harmful greenhouse gases when burned. However, it’s a different story for plastic waste. Since plastic is made from fossil fuels, burning it instead of burying it in landfills creates large amounts of greenhouse gases.

In recent years, more plastic waste has been burned in incinerators, while less food waste is burned—since councils are now sending food waste to be composted or treated in anaerobic digesters.

But the government’s calculations still assume we are burning the same mix of waste as in 2017, possibly underestimating the problem.

A study over five years looked at real pollution data from incinerators and found that waste-to-energy plants are now producing the same amount of greenhouse gases per unit of electricity as coal burning would.

Incineration and Coal Generate the Highest CO2 Emissions per Unit of Energy

For the past 30 years, the UK has been cutting down on coal use because of its harmful pollution, and last month it shut down its final coal plant. The government hopes this will help meet its goal of producing carbon-free electricity by 2030.

Now, waste incineration has become the UK’s dirtiest power source. The analysis shows that energy from waste is five times more polluting than the average electricity produced in the UK.

The UK Climate Change Committee, an independent advisory group, warns that incineration will contribute more to emissions in electricity generation.

Dr. Ian Williams, a professor of environmental science at the University of Southampton, called it an “insane situation,” saying the increasing use of incinerators is “disastrous for our climate.” He believes building more incinerators conflicts with efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.

Lord Deben, who introduced the landfill tax in 1996, agrees, saying there are already too many incinerators, and building more will harm recycling efforts. Despite this, new incinerators are still being approved.

Last month, the government approved a £150m incinerator in Dorset, overruling the local council, which said the project would hinder their goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

Wales and Scotland have already banned new incinerators over environmental concerns, and many experts and environmental groups are urging England and Northern Ireland to do the same.

The UK Climate Change Committee has suggested no new incinerators should be built unless all emissions are captured. Currently, only four out of 58 UK incinerators have approved plans to capture their emissions, and a pilot project at Ferrybridge EfW collects just one tonne of CO2 a day, even though the site produces over half a million tonnes of CO2 annually.

Incinerators Becoming More Polluting and Larger

Without action, the UK’s use of incinerators is expected to keep growing, potentially becoming even more polluting. There are many new incinerator plants being planned, and existing ones are increasing their capacity.

Found that almost half of the UK’s incinerators have expanded without needing a new permit, which would have required public consultation.

Local government data shows that more of the waste being burned is plastic, which is the most harmful to burn because it’s made from fossil fuels. Government statistics reveal that burning plastic creates 175 times more carbon dioxide (CO2) than burying it in landfills.

Professor Keith Bell, from the UK Climate Change Committee, reviewed the findings and said, “If the government is serious about clean power by 2030, we can’t keep burning waste.”

Earlier this year, a temporary ban on permits for new incinerators was introduced in England to review the role of burning waste. However, this ban ended in May & was not renewed, leaving the government undecided on its stance.

Recently, senior officials from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said they couldn’t make a decision on a proposed incinerator in North Lincolnshire until the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) clarified the government’s policy on waste incineration.

This contrasts with the recent approval of the Dorset incinerator by another government department, raising questions about the government’s consistency on this issue.

In response, a Defra spokesperson said, “We are considering the role waste incineration will play as we decarbonise and grow the economy.”

Councils 'Trapped' in Waste Incineration

The challenge for local authorities wanting to move away from energy-from-waste plants is that they are often tied into restrictive, long-term contracts.

Found through Freedom of Information requests that UK councils have at least £30 billion in contracts with waste operators for incinerators, some lasting over 20 years. These contracts have been criticised for locking councils into expensive deals.

Dr. Colin Church, who led a review for the Scottish government that resulted in a ban on incinerators, called this “lock-in” a serious issue, despite claims from the waste industry that it isn’t.

In one case, Derbyshire County Council and Derby City Council had to pay £93.5 million after terminating a contract with a waste company due to issues with an incinerator.

The investigation also revealed that many councils have clauses requiring a minimum amount of waste to be sent for incineration—known as “deliver or pay.” For instance, in 2010, Stoke-on-Trent Council faced a £329,000 claim for not sending enough waste to be incinerated.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has expressed concern that these contracts prevent councils from exploring greener options like recycling due to the fear of financial penalties.

Joe Harris, vice chair of the LGA, emphasised the need to adapt these contracts to allow councils to reduce incineration and boost recycling without facing fines.

Recycling rates in England have remained stagnant at around 41% for the past decade, despite a government goal of 65% by 2035. Wales is the only UK nation to achieve this target.

The Environmental Services Association argued that incineration has complemented recycling efforts, while Defra reiterated its commitment to reducing waste and improving recycling to meet emissions targets.

How We Determined Emissions Levels

To calculate emissions produced per unit of energy of England incinerators, we needed data on both emissions & power output from these sites.

Each UK incinerator produces annual reports that record total emissions. In cases where emissions were missing from these reports, we used figures from the government’s pollution inventory.

The UN’s climate science body, the IPCC, recommends excluding “biogenic” emissions—those from burning organic matter like food—from calculations, as they are counted under the land and forestry sector.

To follow this, we removed biogenic emissions by estimating the portion of waste that was organic.

Some operators provided this data, but where they didn’t, we used government guidelines based on a 2017 survey by the environmental NGO WRAP to estimate the biogenic share. This allowed us to determine the total fossil emissions—emissions from burning non-organic waste like plastic.

Finally, we calculated the carbon intensity, or emissions per unit of energy, for each site by dividing the fossil emissions by the energy generated.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the analysis of England’s incinerators reveals a concerning trend in waste management and energy production.

As local authorities remain bound by long-term contracts, they struggle to move away from energy-from-waste plants, which have become the dirtiest source of power in the UK.

The increased reliance on burning plastic waste, known to produce significantly higher carbon emissions than alternatives like landfilling, further exacerbates the climate crisis.

Despite government efforts to promote cleaner energy and recycling, many councils face financial penalties that hinder their ability to explore more sustainable waste management practices.

This situation is compounded by the challenges of accurately calculating emissions from incinerators, as biogenic emissions must be excluded to reflect the true environmental impact.

Experts have raised alarm over the potential growth of incinerators and the implications for meeting carbon reduction targets.

Without decisive government action to reform waste contracts and regulate incineration, the UK risks locking itself into a high-emission future that contradicts its climate goals.

The need for a comprehensive and cohesive strategy to transition to a circular economy, which prioritises recycling and reduces waste incineration, has never been more urgent.