Much worry surrounds the dioxins from WtE facilities.  In the 70s and 80s incineration plants, often with bad environmental performance rightly received a lot of bad press.  Since then though, stringent new laws from Europe have forced many of these old plants to close in the UK.  The new plants must meet the new emissions standards and these are monitored by our Environment Agency.

The table below shows total dioxins in Germany from 1990 to 2000 ¹. 

We can see how waste incineration has greatly improved from the 400 toxicity units in 1990 to 0.5 in 2000.  If the energy produced by incineration were generated using traditional power stations, there would annually be 3 more tonnes of toxicant and 5,000 more tonnes of dust particles in the air ².

In short, there are many sources of dioxins in our environment.  WtE facilities of any scale are safe, as long as they are operated responsibly and are continually monitored.  Legislation demands that these requirements are met.  A good relationship between the operator and the surrounding community is essential in building trust and some operators are now even publishing their hourly emissions data on the internet.

In an age where oil and gas are rapidly running out, we need to look at all of our local sources of energy to provide our heat and power.  With this in mind, WtE plants can supply some of this.  Whats more, they can provide this for up to 85% of the year as long as there is a supply of residual waste fuel.

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¹ German Federal Environmental Agency Study, Sept. 2005: Waste Incineration — A Potential Danger? Bidding Farewell to Dioxin Spouting.

 ² T. Kristiansen, Ramboll Denmark A/S, CIWM Conference 2006