Criminal damage: A review of the performance of municipal waste incinerators within the UK

In the UK incinerator operators are required to keep records of incidents when they emit pollutants above the legally permitted level. Whilst trawling through these for our "Criminal Damage" report I found several examples of PVC persistently causing major problems. Sometimes these problems are poorly described as for eg "waste content problem" or "large quantity of plastic waste". Others give more detail eg. "chlorinated product in feedstock" and some are quite specific about the reason for the illegal breach eg "incineration of a large quantity of vinyl wallpaper". You can see the report, which has tabulated summaries of reasons for breaches on Greenpeace UK website www.greenpeace.org.uk Note that these reports only refer to acid gas breaches as these are continuously monitored. Dioxins are not continuously monitored and so possible breaches of dioxins during these times are not captured. Also visit the UK Governments Environment Agency website to see their statement that restricting chlorine (PVC) into the Edmonton plant has helped reduce HCl and dioxin emissions. Mark Strutt, Greenpeace UK