The existing Edmonton incinerator

• CAMDEN Council, as a member of the North London Waste Authority, needs urgently to reconsider its commitment to building a new incinerator at Edmonton.

Last year Greta Thunberg started the school strike movement in Sweden. It spread around the world, including to London and to Camden.

Last year Extinction Rebellion (XR) changed the terms of the climate debate taking the issue onto the streets and bridges of London.

Last year Camden Council declared a climate emergency. And yet, some things go on as though nothing has changed.

For decades Camden has burnt a high proportion of its waste in the incinerator at Edmonton. It has entered into a commitment to build a new facility to burn plastic there until 2075!

There was a consultation on building a new incinerator in 2014/15. But that was before the general public had expressed its concern about plastic waste, before XR, before climate emergency.

It is already late. Climate emergency is now. Our record is poor. Camden currently recycles about 30 per cent of its waste, leaving vast amounts to be burnt.

Some heat may be recovered, but in reality this is fossil fuel that is burnt, pouring CO2 as well as noxious nitrous oxides into the air.

It is claimed that recycling and incineration can proceed side by side. In reality they don’t. There is a correlation between high incineration rates and low recycling rates.

The incentive to reuse and recycle is eroded by the need to have waste to burn. A 2015 study in Barnet found over half black bin waste was recyclable, not true waste.

Sadiq Khan has set a target for London of 65 per cent recycling by 2030 – where will the waste for the incinerator come from?

We need a moratorium on the new incinerator and a fresh public debate on how to deal with our waste. We all must play a role.

We need a relentless focus on waste prevention – a reduction in production of waste at source. We need to re-use wherever possible, to recycle at least twice as much as we currently do, to compost all our green waste.

Truly residual waste is probably better buried in landfill, locking up the carbon, than burnt for energy. Incineration is the worst of all options.

To repeat: climate emergency is now – and we merrily plan to burn plastics for the next 50 years and more.

RICHARD KUPER
Address supplied