Create a phase out plan for incinerators
Create a phase out plan for Scotland’s incinerators.
In 2023, the total quantity of waste incinerated in Scotland was 1.62 million tonnes. This was an increase of more than 15% from the year before and about 3 times the amount incinerated in 2011. The 2023 total includes waste from all categories including household, wood, animal manure and rubber. 746,000 tonnes of household waste was incinerated, 32% of the total household waste generated, and up 6.5% on the year before and 12 times the amount incinerated in 2011.
Under the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012, a ban on sending biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) to landfill is due to be introduced in 2025, after the Scottish Government announced in September 2019 that the ban would be delayed for a number of years. This delay has given local authorities across Scotland extra time to plan how they will divert their waste from landfill, but many see incineration as the solution.
As of October 2024, Scotland has nine working incinerators with a total capacity of 1.52m tonnes per year. There is a moratorium on building new incinerators, although some already in the pipeline will still be built, and capacity continues to increase both as new plants become operational and due to increases in capacity at some existing plants. From Inverurie to Irvine, a further five incinerators are due to start operating in the next three years with the capacity to burn a further 1.2m tonnes of waste a year. This means that by 2028 there will be more incineration capacity than there is waste to burn.
Scotland’s target of incinerating only 14% of household waste by 2030 was set out in the 2003 National Waste Strategy. We are currently running at about twice this level, with more incineration capacity being added and plans to burn even more household waste because of the ban on landfilling biodegradable household waste.
The Scottish Government needs a plan to phase out the use of incineration as far as practicable, and as soon as possible. A strong step in the right direction would be to ban plastics going to incinerators by 2025. In addition to this, the Scottish Government needs to engage with communities on the subject to further aid this process and its delivery.
For further information:
- Incineration resource page, FoE Scotland, 2023, https://foe.scot/campaign/plastic-pollution/ incineration/
- Response to the 2030 Waste Route Map consultation, Friends of the Earth Scotland, March 2024, https://foe.scot/resource/response-to-the-2030-waste-route-map-consultation/
- Environmental watchdog requested to investigate the Scottish Government’s incineration failure, FoE Scotland, June 2024, https://foe.scot/press-release/environmental-watchdog-requested-to-investigate-the-scottish-governments-incineration-failure/
- Burning rubbish now UK’s dirtiest form of power, October 2024, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3wxgje5pwo