The Public Center for Environment and Sustainable Development, together with 156 organizations from across Europe, called for a moratorium at the European Union level on new waste incineration projects.
The joint letter, signed by environmental associations, was sent by Zero Waste Europe to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the College of European Commissioners, and the national environment ministers of EU member states.
“We call on the European Commission and EU member states to immediately stop approving and building new waste incineration facilities across the European Union,” the civil activists say at the beginning of the letter.
The EU is already facing a crisis of excess municipal waste incineration capacity, estimated at 60 million tons.
Once Europe achieves its existing recycling and waste reduction targets, the current infrastructure will undoubtedly meet all future needs. Expanding incineration capacity will lock Europe into a system of burning materials that directly undermines waste reduction, reuse, and recycling—the top priorities in the EU waste hierarchy and the circular economy, the appeal states.
More and more experts recognise that waste incineration is responsible for climate change. The carbon intensity of energy generated by incineration is higher than that of many conventional energy sources, especially considering the high content of fossil fuels in residual waste, mainly from plastics. This is stated in a recent expert analysis. The associated greenhouse gas emissions from incineration, even in energy recovery facilities, are in direct contradiction to the EU’s climate neutrality commitments. Building new incineration facilities now would lock in high-carbon waste infrastructure for decades to come. This would make it difficult for Member States to achieve their climate targets under the EU Green Deal and the Clean Industry Deal, say environmental organisations.
Despite improvements in emissions control, there is growing evidence linking waste incineration to serious pollution and potential health hazards.
Contrary to claims that incineration eliminates the need for landfills, up to 16 million tons of incineration residues (including hazardous waste) are landfilled annually.
