16 October 2024
Burning rubbish is not only the UK’s most damaging form of power, it’s also the most wasteful!
Yesterday, the BBC broke the news that nearly half of the rubbish produced in UK homes is now being incinerated, including increasing amounts of plastic.
Worryingly, their report revealed that energy-from-waste plants are now producing the same amount of greenhouse gases per unit of electricity as if they were burning coal. That’s because plastic is made of fossil fuels and burning it, rather than burying it in landfill, produces high levels of greenhouse gases.
It’s no wonder scientists are warning that the practice of incineration is a “disaster for the climate” - leading some to call for a ban on new incinerators.
It’s what we’ve been saying for many years.
The issue here is that more plastic than ever has been going to incinerators and less food waste - which councils are now sending to anaerobic digesters or to be composted.
Harmful and wasteful
It’s not just the harm that incinerators do to the environment that we need to be concerned about; it’s also the incredibly wasteful approach to dealing with plastic.
Burning plastic simply doesn’t make sense. That’s because in the future, once the production of oil comes to its inevitable end, old plastic will become a valuable resource for the creation of new plastics.
As part of the Sustain Super-Midden initiative at Royal Wootton Bassett, our long-term vision is to harvest landfill cells that are exhausted of their methane so that we can collect old plastic for future use. This will then be put into landfill storage for future processing once oil production ends.
Although uneconomic to process at the present point, once oil production stops, pre-used plastics will provide a key source of polymers. When this happens, old plastic will become a valuable asset that can be harvested from our storage cells in the Super-Midden, turning a problem waste into a valuable future source of materials.
Excavation of waste for reprocessing
Yesterday, work on the mining of recyclates from the first of our old landfill cells began. This will see any materials that can now be recycled – thanks to new technology – being extracted, while the remaining plastic will be returned to landfill for storage. In time, this will create more space at the Crapper and Sons landfill site so that emptied cells can be refilled with new waste materials, which will go on to generate fresh methane for energy.
A greener future
Methane produced from waste in the Super-Midden will continue to be tapped to safely power engines that generate electricity on site. This will be used to heat and provide power to our revolutionary flexible greenhouses that will be situated on the active cells within the Super-Midden, enabling us to produce fresh fruit and vegetables for the local community.
This will allow us to create the perfect growing temperature for horticulture throughout the year, and CO2 produced as a by-product will be used to aid photosynthesis within the greenhouses, enhancing productivity. The first of these greenhouses is in the process of being commissioned, ready for trials within the year.
A circular solution for the future
Providing a circular solution to the issue of waste, the Sustain Super-Midden is not only an innovative solution for the production of affordable food and energy, but also an optimal solution for dealing with plastic, providing the most climate-friendly disposal option for this problem waste at the same time as securing a valuable source of plastic recyclates for the future.
You can read more on the BBC’s worrying report into incineration here.
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