Scottish Government to ban new incinerators

Directors’ view

By Eilidh Stanners, Communications Officer

In June, we welcomed some progress on the way waste is managed in Scotland: the Scottish Government committed to banning new incinerators, after the move was called for by an independent review.

Incinerators contribute to climate change by emitting greenhouse gases from the waste they burn. They also make it more difficult to ensure potentially recyclable material is not wasted instead. The independent review published a report on 10 May which showed the real scale of the nation’s incineration problem. It showed the need for rapid action to prevent the loss of valuable resources, and stop the climate-wrecking emissions being caused by burning plastics. Burning plastic releases more carbon than coal, and the only way to cut emissions from incineration for good is to stop burning waste. The total amount of waste incinerated in Scotland in 2019 was 1.23 megatonnes (that’s a billion kilograms!), double the amount in 2011. The capacity analysis from the report shows that in five years time Scotland will have more incineration capacity than there is available waste to burn.

The review made 12 policy recommendations for the Scottish Government, local authorities and wider waste industry. It made it clear that along with the ban, more must be done to minimise waste and improve recycling, and that we need to phase out the incinerators that are already operational too if Scotland is to meet its climate goals. This is still to be acted on by the Scottish Government. The ban is a fantastic step in stopping incineration in Scotland, and it wouldn’t have been possible without so many of you contacting the review to let them know your views – over 1,000 people emailed Colin Church, who led the review, to call for this ban. In March while the review was ongoing, Viridor – one of the UK’s biggest waste management companies – cancelled plans to build what would have been Scotland’s largest incinerator, signalling that even large waste management companies know that time is up for incineration in Scotland. The Overwood incinerator could have burned 330,000 tonnes of rubbish and would have led to a substantial rise in vehicles on the road in the area and subsequently a rise in air and noise pollution too, but community resistance helped stop it. Dovesdale Action Group led the local campaign against the project, blocking earlier plans for a similar incinerator nearby and leading the huge community response opposing the Overwood plant.

This is a fantastic step in stopping incineration in Scotland, and it wouldn’t have been possible without so many of you contacting the review to let them know your views.

John Young, from the Dovesdale Action Group, said: “The announcement by Viridor to withdraw their proposal for the largest incinerator in Scotland is testament to the strength of the campaign here in South Lanarkshire to protect our communities from the impact it would have had on our rural landscape, public health, the environment and climate change. ”

Scotland is joining Wales, wchich banned incineration in 2021. It now has the third highest recycling rates in the world. In Scotland, recycling rates have slowed and even reversed in recent years. In 2019, Scotland’s household recycling rate was 44.9% – a long way off the target for 70% of material to be recycled by 2025. Moving away from incineration will make it easier to reverse this backwards trend.

We need to value resources properly, rather than taking from nature, using once then burning or burying the waste. This is a significant step in the right direction.

Find out more about incineration in Scotland at www.foe.scot/incineration