Are north Londoners irreversibly locked into incinerating rubbish in Edmonton for decades to come – or is a less toxic, lower-carbon alternative still available?

First, a quick recap. In late 2021, representatives of north London’s seven councils voted to replace the failing, 50-year-old incinerator in Edmonton, Enfield, one of the UK’s most deprived areas, with a new one that is 30% bigger.

In casting their votes, the councillors dismissed:

  • health risks from the incinerator’s highly toxic emissions of ultrafine particles (thereby entrenching environmental racism)
  • Mayor Sadiq Khan’s assessment that even without a plant in Edmonton, London already has excess incineration capacity (in commercial plants, which could treat north London’s waste)
  • official data indicating that waste was in decline (as highlighted by Iain Duncan Smith when he demanded a value-for-money review of the incinerator)
  • a London Labour motion for a ‘pause and review’ of the incinerator plans, passed in July 2021 (which should have changed policy for the Labour-led councils)
  • skyrocketing costs for the incinerator complex (which recently ballooned by another 25%, from £1.2 to £1.52 billion).

At the time of the vote, the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) was operating without a joint waste strategy, the last one having expired in 2020. The strategic vacuum persists to this day, with dire implications for north London’s household recycling rate.

The expired joint waste strategy’s recycling target was 50% by 2020, but in 2022/23 the rate was a mere 30.6% (with both Camden and Haringey coming in below 28%). So roughly 70% of our waste still goes up in smoke – a fatal cocktail of toxins and CO2 – even though more than half of it could be recycled if properly sorted.

Compounding matters is NLWA’s ongoing use of inaccurate carbon emission figures to misrepresent the planned incinerator – and its electricity and heat – as ‘low-carbon’ and ‘part of the climate solution’.

Fortunately, political parties are calling for greener approaches.

Even the Conservative manifesto commits to "prevent[ing] new waste incinerators being built" and "revoking those where substantial construction has not taken place", recognising "the impact on local communities and that increased recycling rates will reduce the need for incineration capacity".

That seems particularly relevant given NLWA’s recent announcement that construction of the incinerator is still ‘to be delivered’ and that the main contractor’s ‘inability’ to secure the requisite skilled workforce has led to delays.

NLWA has postponed the incinerator’s completion date to 2027.

Will the next government cancel the Edmonton Incinerator?