Burning waste in the new Edmonton Incinerator will be twice as bad for climate emissions as putting the waste in landfill, according to a new analysis of the report commissioned by local councillors to support the project. It is vitally important that we elect Green Party councillors in the May 8^th elections who will reopen the debate on this environmentally damaging incinerator and force councils to look again at the basis on which they have supported burning waste, rather than recycling it.

It is clear that Labour councillors in Camden, Islington, Hackney, Enfield, Haringey, Haringey and Waltham Forest (along with Conservative controlled Barnet) either don’t understand what they have voted for, or really don’t care about recycling. These councils have some of the lowest recycling rates in the country and building the incinerator is a big statement that this is not going to change in the next two decades, as the recycling will continue to be burned rather than processed.

If London councils did all achieve the modest recycling targets set by the government,then the Mayor of London estimates there would be 250,000 tonnes of surplus incineration capacity in the capital. If the new plant at Edmonton is built, that becomes 950,000 tonnes of useless incineration capacity. There are two ways of keeping the incinerator burning, either you import waste from outside London or you reduce the amount you recycle even further by throwing more into the fire.

You can read about the new analysis here