Information in response to Enquiries from Enfield North London Heat and Power Project is part of NLWA’s overall solution to managing north London’s waste in the most sustainable way possible, and a major part of NLWA’s efforts to tackle the Climate Emergency through waste management. NLWA has a duty to dispose of waste responsibly and does so in line with the waste hierarchy by prioritising waste prevention and recycling. Therefore, the best way for residents to reduce the carbon impact of their waste is not to produce it in the first place. To that end through our own annual programme of activities, we are supporting borough activity and helping residents prevent a further 10,000+ tonnes of material from being thrown away every year. Where waste is produced and can’t be reused, we want as much of it as possible to be recycled. Boroughs already have collection systems which allows the widest possible range of items to be recycled; we run campaigns and education and outreach activities to boost recycling, and we have called on the Government to make recycling compulsory and give local authorities the powers to enforce correct recycling. NLHPP will help to drive up recycling rates; for the first time ever, residents will be able to bring their recyclable materials directly to Edmonton EcoPark. This centre will add to the network of centres already in place across north London that provide additional opportunities for residents to reuse and recycle and allow an anticipated further 135,000 tonnes of materials to be recycled. However, we serve a population of over 2 million people and growing and a solution is needed for the waste that can’t be recycled. That’s why our project includes an Energy Recovery Facility (ERF); the new facility is the only proven, sustainable and cost-effective solution to treat up to 700,000 tonnes of north London’s non-recyclable waste at Edmonton EcoPark1. Environmental impact • Claim 1: The IPCC advises we should be making every effort to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade to avoid catastrophic impacts which will require ambitious action from local authorities. The waste from 7 boroughs will be incinerated in Enfield releasing as much as 700,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere a year (the same amount as Hackney’s total annual carbon footprint or 450,000 new cars). The claim that the new facility at Edmonton will release 700,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year is misleading; in fact it’s a major part of tackling the Climate Emergency and the most sustainable way of treating non-recyclable waste in north London. The climate impact of the new facility is equivalent to 28,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide when treating 700,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste. The carbon impact is so low because we are preventing methane generation in landfill, offsetting more carbon intensive energy generation using virgin fossil fuels and enabling metals to be recycled. In comparison the climate impact of sending 700,000 tonnes of waste to landfill is much greater; 243,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents would be generated every year. This accounts for emissions from methane generation, which is at least 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and transporting waste outside of London. The climate impact of using our new facility is therefore equivalent to a 215,000-tonne carbon saving- when compared to landfill- which is like taking 110,000 cars off the road every year. The Committee on Climate Change states the waste sector is the only UK industry to outperform its ‘carbon budget’ obligations, meaning that climate change effects are reducing much faster than targeted as landfill use is reduced. The vast majority of emissions from the waste sector are from landfill sites with less than 0.05% of the national greenhouse gas emissions figure being from waste incineration. • Claim 2: Burning waste is vastly more inefficient than burning fossil fuels. Even with expected advancements in technology in 2020 and ensuring both heat and electricity is captured and used from the burning, it is predicted that incinerators will still emit more greenhouse gases than gas power 1 For more information, please refer to the Alternatives Assessment that was submitted as part of the Development Consent Order application: northlondonheatandpower.london/media/asvicpm2/ad05-03_alternatives_assessment_lores.pdf. stations. How is this compatible with Enfield’s declaration of a climate emergency and plans to reach carbon neutrality by 2030? It is absolutely not true that our facility will be less efficient than burning fossil fuels and emit more greenhouse gases than gas power stations. The ambition to achieve Net Zero requires reducing waste to landfill and a move away from burning fossil fuels through a fourfold increase in low-carbon power-generation, such as that provided by our replacement energy recovery facility. A modern, efficient facility to recover energy from waste instead of sending it to landfill is part of this solution. The ERF will generate 78 megawatts of electricity which can supply heat and enough power for up to 127,000 homes, with excellent efficiency levels (close to 100% for heat generation). This compares to 40% thermal efficiency for coal-fired power stations and 56% for natural gas, meaning that, with coal and gas, a large amount of the energy input is wasted. The cleaner energy produced by our facility will have carbon efficiency rates at 25% better than the Mayor of London’s target (known as the Carbon Intensity Floor target, which ensures that energy generated from waste activities is no more polluting in carbon terms than the energy source it replaces). • Claim 3: Incineration creates a perverse incentive to produce more waste and avoid recycling, composting, reduction as well as squashing innovation in waste management and circular economy implementation. At the recent meet and greet session with NLWA at a local Tesco Extra, it was confirmed that there would be no sorting of waste prior to incineration despite NLWA’s ‘intention’ to get recycling rates to 50% (currently below 30%). A huge amount of general waste can be recycled as a result of lack of public education on recycling. Is it not irresponsible not to leverage the latest mechanical and biological sorting technologies to extract recyclable and compostable materials? There is absolutely no evidence that using energy recovery stops people recycling and creates more waste. Across Europe and the UK, high recycling rates go hand-in-hand with energy from waste facilities. Facilities like ours are used by several UK councils with exceptionally high recycling rates above 60%, such as South Oxfordshire District Council and Stratford-upon-Avon. The Netherlands, Germany and Austria all recycle more than 50% of their waste and treat most of the rest through energy from waste facilities. NLWA is committed to working with the boroughs to drive up recycling rates, as it is the boroughs that ultimately collect the waste that is then presented to NLWA facilities. The NLWA has a 50% recycling rate as its target that has been included in the NLHPP project. However, given the necessity to produce high quality recyclables that have a genuine market for onward processing the extraction of quality recyclables from black bag waste is extremely difficult. When recyclable materials get mixed with black bag waste, including food waste, they become contaminated, making it very expensive to extract them and significantly reducing the quality of the recyclable material. That’s why NLWA works hard to encourage residents to put their waste in the correct bins to maximise the amount of material that can be sorted at our materials recovery facilities and then recycled. Public health • Claim 4: Kings College London recently reported that high pollution days in London produce an extra 87 cardiac arrests, 144 more strokes and 74 children and 33 adults being treated in hospitals for asthma attacks. These avoidable deaths are happening right now! According to the North London Waste Authority’s own website the Incinerator produced 8,4771,906 kgs of CO2 and 24,882.89 kgs of NOx during 2017/18 from 505,864 tonnes of waste. The new incinerator is due to burn 700,000 tonnes of waste producing just over 700,000 tonnes of CO2. With its close proximity to the North Circular, it is not irresponsible to place such a grave health risk to those living and working Enfield? It is not accurate to suggest that energy from waste facilities place grave health risks on people living close to them as there is no evidence to suggest this. NLWA is going beyond statutory requirements to ensure that the new facility is one of the cleanest and safest in the world. The safest technology known as Selective Catalytic Reduction is being invested in for the removal of nitrogen dioxide (NOx). While the current facility operates at 20% better than permitted levels of NOx emissions, the new facility will perform at 60% better than the required safe levels. Using this technology means the facility will always meet the Environment Agency’s strict standards as they change over time. In setting the emissions limits within the permit, the Environment Agency takes account of background levels of air quality. Furthermore, our analysis shows that the new facility does not breach any local concentrations of pollutants in air quality standards. As a public authority our responsibility to protect the health of our residents is at the forefront of everything we do. Public Health England, which advises the Government nationally, says modern and well-regulated Energy from Waste plants like ours make only a small contribution to overall pollution levels, which are primarily caused by other sources.