Sheffield’s Waste Incinerator

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAThttps://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com

By Paul Homewood

Looking down Burngreave Road with Bernard Road incinerator (Sheffield Heat and Power) and Wybourn in the distance, Sheffield S3/S4/S2

Bernard Road Waste Incinerator, Sheffield

Continuing the theme of CHP plants, Sheffield has had its own in the form of the Bernard Road Waste Incinerator since the late 1980s.

At the time it seemed tick all of the green boxes:

Reducing landfill
Producing electricity from waste
Providing district heating from waste heat.

The plant was developed and run by Sheffield City Council, in conjunction with Sheffield Heat and Power Ltd.

Unfortunately it did not take long for things to go wrong.

The basic problem was that the incinerator was built bang in the middle of Sheffield, within a few hundred yards of residential areas.

Concerns were soon raised about the effect of smoke and emissions on local health. Greenpeace were at the forefront of objections. In 2001 they occupied the Bernard Road incinerator and painted “Toxic Crime” on the chimney. At that time the incinerator was the most polluting in the country and there were grave concerns about the health effects. The emission of dioxins were known to cause cancer, heart disease, liver damage, hormonal disruption, reproductive disorders and much more.

In 2001, the City Council was forced to privatise the plant, as it was unable to pay for the necessary upgrades to meet pollution standards. Onyx were awarded a 35- year contract worth £1.3bn to run it. Onyx (now Veolia) quickly realised that the old plant would have to close, and replaced with a new one, commissioned in 2006.

Despite much better pollution controls, complaints are still being made about smoke. I can actually vouch for this, as I could see the chimney from the top of the hill everyday on the way to work. On still days, white smoke could be seen spreading out over the nearby area.

Houses in Wybourn downwind of Bernard Rd

Houses in Wybourn downwind of Bernard Rd

Eventually in 2012, Public Health England (PHE) were pressured into setting up a study into the effects on health of 22 waste incinerators up and down the country, including the Sheffield one.

The report was due to be available by 2014, but has still to be published.

We await the results, but what is known is that these plants do emit a range of toxic substances, such as dioxins and mercury, gases such as nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide, as well as particulates. The only question is whether the quantities involved are deemed “safe”.

A further issue has also arisen with Bernard Road. There is now not enough rubbish generated in Sheffield to meet the plant’s demands for energy. This is due to the fact that more waste is being recycled nowadays.

Veolia have therefore had to submit a planning application to import waste from a very wide region around Sheffield – effectively across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

It was estimated that an extra 15000 tonnes of rubbish would need to be shipped into Sheffield, in addition to 50000 tonnes which is already transported in from outside of town.

Sheffield residents are naturally up in arms that they will get the fumes from burning other towns’ waste. Not to mention the problems arising from all of the lorry journeys involved.

Through all of this, government has appeared to ambivalent, trapped between landfill and recycling targets, not to mention decarbonisation ones.

When attempting to justify the closure of coal power plants, politicians invariably play the pollution card.

Yet they seem to be perfectly happy to see waste incinerators belching out probably much more real pollution, and in the middle of towns to make matters worse.

All in the name of the great god, CO2!

Looking back, I find it incredible that it took so long to set up the PHE study, or that a full embargo was not put on new incinerators many years ago until all of the facts were known.