PRESS RELEASE: Anaerobic digestion industry welcomes London Assembly incineration report

• Report calls incineration one of ‘least desirable forms’ of waste management
• Report calls for food waste to be separated and sent to anaerobic digestion facilities to extract full value
• AD industry body says report ‘strengthens case for mandatory separate food waste collections’

The UK’s anaerobic digestion (AD) industry has welcomed a report published today by the London Assembly’s Environment Committee that describes incineration of household waste as one of the ‘least desirable forms of management in the waste hierarchy’.

The report states that the amount of waste sent for incineration has more than doubled in the last decade, reaching nearly two million tonnes in 2017. It also notes that burning waste takes materials out of the circular economy, releases carbon into the atmosphere, and may have negative health effects.

The report goes on to say that because not all London boroughs offer separate food waste collections, food waste is being burnt rather going to other processes which are more environmentally beneficial, such as AD, which recycles food waste into renewable energy, low-carbon transport fuel, and nutrient-rich biofertiliser. The report describes anaerobic digesters in London as ‘under-utilised’.

Charlotte Morton, Chief Executive of the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA), the trade body for the UK AD industry, said:

Today’s report rightly recognises that burning waste not only contributes to London’s urgent air pollution crisis but also fails to extract maximum value from what we throw away. Local authorities sending waste to incineration currently have no incentive to encourage householders to separate their recycling, while introducing separate food waste collections would allow food waste to be properly recycled through AD, producing not only renewable heat and power and low-carbon transport fuel but also nutrient-rich biofertiliser, vital to restoring the UK’s depleted soils.

 

This report only serves to strengthen the case for the UK Government to finally introduce mandatory separate food waste collections across England to emulate the success seen in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The government has set itself a target of diverting all food waste from landfill by 2030, but it will find this target impossible to meet without separate food waste collections.

ENDS

Notes for editors

Photo of ADBA Chief Executive Charlotte Morton attached for use.

London Assembly Environment Committee report Waste: Energy From Waste: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/waste-energy_from_waste_feb15.pdf

Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA) website: www.adbioresources.org

Contact details

Chris Noyce, PR & Parliamentary Affairs Executive, ADBA

T: 020 3176 5441      E: chris.noyce@adbioresources.org

Website: www.adbioresources.org

Twitter: @adbioresources