Environmentalists slam decision to keep Tyseley incinerator

Birmingham City Council is deciding on which firm to take over handling waste disposal services – including the incinerator – for another ten years from the date the current agreement with Veolia ends in 2024.

But the suggestion of extending the life of the incinerator has been slammed by campaigners who say it goes against the idea of the “climate emergency”, declared by the city council last year.

As part of the climate emergency, the council says it is committed to making Birmingham carbon neutral by 2030.

But the contract currently being decided on would see the incinerator, described by campaigners as Birmingham’s biggest source of CO2, continue to be used past this date.

The advert placed by the council on the Government’s Contracts Finder site said the contract is set to last from January 17, 2024 to January 16, 2034, “with an option to extend up to a further five years”.

Birmingham’s Youth Strike 4 Climate group, which held protests in the city prior to the coronavirus lockdown, announced a social media campaign targeting the city council on May 18.

The group set out a number of challenges to the council to “get serious about the climate”, including being transparent around its plans for the incinerator and other projects such as the Dudley Road scheme.

A Birmingham Youth Strike 4 Climate spokesperson said: “We are tired of being ignored, dismissed and treated as a political prop by Birmingham City Council and the politicians of Birmingham.

“We are fed up with striking in vain as the council continues to be stagnant on climate action. They have all but ignored the implications of their declaration of a climate emergency made in June 2019.

“It sickens us to see the consideration to renew the Tyseley incinerator and the planning of non-green infrastructure, as well as the lack of transparency with its own city regarding such initiatives.”

Friends of the Earth has suggested a move to digesting food waste for biogas, increasing recycling and reducing plastic packaging as alternatives to continuing to use the incinerator.

John Newson, Birmingham Friends of the Earth waste campaigner, said: “Birmingham Friends of the Earth has opposed the incinerator since it was built in the 1990s.

“It only exists due to a huge public subsidy and it requires that Birmingham remaining at the bottom of the national recycling league.

“Half of what is burned is organic matter, such as food waste, which the council will soon be forced by the Government to collect separately for digestion to biogas.

“The rest is items that should be reused or recycled or plastic packaging which again will be phased out."

Objections to the incinerator have been supported by councillors from all political groups including councillors Julien Pritchard, Olly Armstrong, Lisa Trickett, Alex Yip and Roger Harmer.

Councillor Pritchard said: “Looking to sign a contract to keep the Tyseley incinerator until at least 2034 means Birmingham City Council continues to burn rubbish in this dirty outdated incinerator for over a decade.

“This flies in the face of the council’s declaration of a climate emergency and it’s ambition to be zero carbon by 2030.

“Birmingham City Council needs to be looking to the future, not re-procuring for the technologies of the past.”

Referring to the campaign from Youth Strike 4 Climate, Councillor Waseem Zaffar, cabinet member for transport and environment, said: “We will be responding to the group to address their concerns in due course, but we would want to make it clear, for the avoidance of doubt, we are absolutely committed to improving the city’s environment and every decision and policy we draw up takes this into full account.”

In relation to the current status of the incinerator, a Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: “The council is currently engaged in a procurement exercise that is intended to see the Tyseley Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) operate through to 2034, in line with agreed policy.

“We aren’t able to comment further on that procurement at this stage.”