Plans afoot for new rubbish incinerator by Hackney Wick

Tower Hamlets Council is consulting on plans for a new incinerator plant on Fish Island, close to Hackney Wick – an increasingly vibrant area which is a magnet for artists and home to the Hackney WickED festival.

‘There is an opportunity to develop a new green waste to energy facility in Fish Island south linked to the Olympic energy centre in Fish Island east,’ the council’s consultation document says. ‘The facility would provide a sustainable way of dealing with household waste across Tower Hamlets, reducing reliance on land fill and converting waste to energy to serve new homes in the Olympic Park, Fish Island and Hackney Wick.’

Environmentalists are cautious about the plans and a council-commissioned ‘sustainability appraisal’ criticised the lack of detail in the proposal, saying that  ‘the role of the Waste Facility is not sufficiently explained,’ and that its benefits are not clear.

Kate Hand of Hackney and Tower Hamlets Friends of the Earth said: “If this energy for waste facility is an incinerator we would have serious concerns. They can be very inefficient and they rely on recyclables to keep them going. In addition, they can be expensive and can tie councils into long contracts.”

Darren Johnson, a Green Party member of the London Assembly, added:  “We need to look at new ways of dealing with waste as we cannot continue sending it off to landfill sites outside London. But getting the right sort of technology is absolutely vital. Mass burn incinerators are an outdated polluting technology and we certainly don’t want to see any more of those in London.

“There is a role for more sophisticated energy from waste plants, particularly anaerobic digestion which produces green energy from food waste. Whatever the technology, however, we need to ensure the opportunities for waste reduction and recycling are maximised first. Energy from waste should only be used for that part of the waste stream that cannot be recycled or reused.”

A Tower Hamlets council spokesperson said: ” We are in the process of exploring the options for the future management of the borough’s waste.  One option does include the possibility of building a waste-to-energy facility in the borough, but as yet the feasibility studies are not complete. One element of the feasibility study is looking at whether an appropriate site can be identified.  We have consulted on the principle of a site being safeguarded within Fish Island as part of the next stage of the Local Development Framework”.