Oxfordshire plans to incinerate

Oxfordshire County Council has announced the preferred bidders for its municipal waste treatment contract: Waste Recycling Group (WRG) and Viridor. Both companies use incineration as a form of waste treatment. The County Council has publicly stated that it expects incinerators to burn about 200,000 tonnes of material a year, most of it household waste.

Generating electricity through incineration is a waste-to-energy solution. However, recycling materials is more energy efficient than making them anew each time and burning them in an incinerator. Oxford Friends of the Earth is strongly opposed to incineration, favouring Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) instead.

During the MBT process, waste is mechanically sorted to recover plastics and metals, and then subjected to the biological process of anaerobic digestion. Studies show that MBT is the top performer in terms of minimising greenhouse gas emissions. MBT can also generate electricity from bio-gases emitted during digestion. Many councils, including Lancashire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, have chosen to build MBT facilities for their residual waste treatment.

Andrew Wood, Waste and Recycling Campaigner for Oxford Friends of the Earth, commented: "The County Council's decision flies in the face of public opposition and sound environmental policy. Other Councils have chosen waste treatment technologies which don't involve incineration, and which complement strategies for higher rates of recycling and waste prevention - saving cash and the environment. The Conservative-controlled County Council has just put a match to David Cameron's environmental credentials. Those professing concern about climate change should act on their principles and reject polluting incinerators."