Incineration

incinerator

This page contains resources to help you campaign against incinerators in your local area.

If you are concerned about a local incinerator plan, the first step is to check if your local Friends of the Earth group is already involved in a campaign against it. You can find your nearest group here.

UK WIN (UK Without Incineration) is a network of anti-incineration groups. You can see if there's is a campaign group in your area on UK WIN's website, and there's also an interactive map of current and proposed incinerators.

Friends of the Earth opposes incineration because it:

Destroys valuable materials that could be recycled into new products. Recycling saves far more energy than is created by burning waste as it avoids having to make products from virgin materials.
Doesn't provide an incentive for reducing waste, as incinerators need a minimum amount of rubbish to operate efficiently. Contracts for incinerators also tend to be long-term, requiring waste for 20 years, so they are very inflexible to changing components and quantity of the waste stream.
Causes pollution, often in already polluted areas. There are a number of health concerns associated with both air emissions from incinerators and the solid waste (ash) that is produced.

There are also other site-specific issues with incineration such as visual impacts and increased heavy traffic.

Key resources
Understand the planning system
Campaign guides
Briefings
Posters
Case studies
Links

For more general information on incineration, recycling and waste see our sister website www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/waste.

Key resources to help you understand the issues and build your campaign

Up in smoke
(PDF format - 190K) Sept 2007
This briefing looks at the reasons why Friends of the Earth opposes incineration, and covers the waste of natural resources, the effect on recycling and climate change and the pollution from air emissions and toxic ash.

Up in smoke leaflet
(PDF format - 262K) October 2007
This colour leaflet provides an introduction to why Friends of the Earth opposes incineration of mixed municipal waste and offers solutions for dealing with our rubbish. For paper copies visit our online shop's free resources section.

Dirty truths: incineration and climate change
(PDF† format - 755K) May 2006
This briefing investigates the climate impacts of energy from waste and residual waste treatment and shows that incinerators that produce electricity emit more greenhouse than gas fired power stations.

Understand the planning system

Understanding the planning system is essential to running an anti-incinerator campaign - it's the best way to get your voice heard and have an influence on the decisions being made. Many useful resources to help you get involved in the right way and at the right stage of planning applications can be found on the Friends of the Earth Planning website. Although the system may seem arcane and intimidating, don't be put off by the complexity.

Be aware that is important to respond to planning applications within 21 days and to support your letter of objection with relevant planning policies.

Campaign guides

NB - The planning sections of the following guides have been superceded by the resources on the Friends of the Earth Planning website.

The PDF versions provided here are meant for online reading and to print out relevant pages. We do not recommend to print off the entire documents. Please be aware that the file sizes are quite large and might take a while to download.

How to win: campaign against incinerators
(PDFformat - 442K) September 2000
An introductory guide, updating and summarising information found in the Incineration Campaign Guide.This briefing looks at the reasons why Friends of the Earth opposes incineration, and covers the waste of natural resources, the effect on recycling and climate change and the pollution from air emissions and toxic ash.You can also buy a paper copy of this guide.

Incineration campaign guide
(PDFformat - 675K) December 1997
A comprehensive guide for campaigning against incineration. The 'How to Win: Campaign against incinerators' guide above updates and summarises information from this guide.

Briefings on relevant waste issues

Anaerobic digestion
(PDF format - 101K) September 2007
With strong public opposition from local communities to incineration, local authorities are increasingly looking for other means to tackle the UK's growing waste problem. One such technique, explained in this briefing, is the process of anaerobic digestion (AD). AD is a treatment that composts biodegradable waste in the absence of oxygen, producing a biogas that can be used to generate 100% renewable electricity and heat.

New waste technologies
(PDFformat - 82K) September 2004
Waste disposal authorities are increasingly looking at new technologies to deal with waste other than landfill or incineration.This briefing offers guidance on the questions local campaigners should be asking when deciding whether to support new proposals.

Mechanical and biological treatment
(PDF format - 171K) March 2004
Traditionally, most municipal waste in the UK has been landfilled and more recently there has been a trend towards incineration. Mechanical and biological treatment is a new option for dealing with our waste. This briefing examines the process and explains the potential benefits and disadvantages of using this technology.

Pyrolysis and gasification
(PDF format - 105K) October 2002
This briefing explains how pyrolysis and gasification processes work and what their benefits and disadvantages are. It also looks at which companies are involved in developing this technology in the UK.

Target recycling: aiming for 50 per cent and beyond
(PDF† format - 450K) January 2005
This report looks at the impact of setting statutory recycling targets and puts forward Friends of the Earth recommendations for future targets and other policy measures to support high rates of recycling in the UK.

Posters

Yes to recycling, no to incineration poster (PDF)
Bin image (PDF)

Case studies

We've put together some case studies of local campaigns against incinerators: