Disadvantages Of Waste Incineration And The Reality For New Plants In Europe

There may be benefits of incineration but are there harmful effects of incineration on our health?

People in the United Kingdom especially, but elsewhere as well, have been very worried about possible pollution and incineration risk to health of incineration.

It is true that emissions of many parameters from waste incinerators need to be taken very seriously, and they are, throughout the EU. So they are designed not to be produced as far as possible, and it it is not possible to completely prevent very low quantities being produced these amounts are removed before the flue gas leaves the stack or chimney.

Watch our video below about the related subject of biomass energy, which after all is largely what an incinerator provides.

In fact all waste incineration processes are now designed and operated to ensure that there are no harmful effects of incineration so that residual emissions of pollutants comply with the very stringent emission limits set out in the Waste Incineration Directive (2000/76/EC).

Because waste incineration has a long operating record, there is a good database of information on emissions and potential health effects compared to other options for managing waste. That means we can be pretty certain about what the effects of these emissions would be.

We found the information below from the UK government department Defra:

Apparently, emissions from an incinerator typical of those currently operating in the UK (mostly about 230,000 tonnes per year) are approximately equivalent to:

• Oxides of nitrogen: Emissions from a 7 km stretch of typical motorway
• Particulate matter: Emissions from a 5 km stretch of typical motorway
• Dioxins and furans: Emissions from accidental fires in a town the size of Milton Keynes
• Cadmium: A twentieth of the emissions from a medium sized UK coal-fired power station.

These emissions are approximately equivalent over the same time period.

So, emissions of oxides of nitrogen from a typical incineration over a period of an hour are approximately the same as emissions of oxides of nitrogen from a typical motorway just 7 km in length over a one hour period.

Now, if we are going to get worried about the possible harmful effects of incineration from our local incinerator, most of us should also begin to get concerned about the motorway of which there will be a lot more than 7 km around and within our towns.

So, the emissions from modern incinerators are not likely give anyone ill health, and in reality in any town there are many other far worse emissions from factories, road traffic on motorways, and even home coal and wood fires. So, in reality the disadvantages of waste incineration plants are few and all of the risk factors are readily designed out and controlled in a modern incinerator plant. Therefore, do reconsider incineration because there are many benefits of incineration.