In October 2024 we published analysis revealing that burning household rubbish in giant incinerators to make electricity is now the dirtiest way the UK generates power.
Scientists warned it was a “disaster for the climate” - and some called for a ban on new incinerators.
A was created to make it easier for reporters to see figures in their area and how those had changed over the period covered, and put it into regional context. A
Methodology
In order to calculate the emissions produced per unit of energy from England’s incinerators, the 成人快手 needed to obtain the emissions produced and the power output from these sites.
Each incinerator in the UK produces , external, which record key statistics associated with the plant including its total emissions.
But in a few cases the emissions were not recorded in the annual monitoring report and so the figures recorded in the government’s pollution inventory report, external were used.
The IPCC, the UN climate science body, recommends that “biogenic” emissions - which come from burning organic matter like food - are not included in calculations because they are recorded under the emissions for the land and forestry sector.
So we had to remove these biogenic emissions from the total by working out what share of the waste being burned was organic.
Some operators recorded this, but in the cases where they did not the government guidelines, external advise applying a factor based on the share of household waste that was recorded as biogenic during a 2017 survey by the environmental NGO WRAP.
This gave the 成人快手 the total fossil emissions - meaning those associated with burning the “fossil” waste (or non-organic waste) at the site, including plastic.
Then we calculated a carbon intensity figure - the carbon emissions per unit of energy generated - for every site, by dividing the total fossil emissions by the energy generated.
Methodological support was provided by Francesco Pomponi, professor of sustainability science at Edinburgh Napier University; Massimiliano Materazzi, associate professor of chemical engineering at University College London; and Dr Jim Hart, sustainability consultant.
Get the data
- Environment Agency:
- Environment Agency:
- Waste by authority, 2014/15 and 2022/23:
- FOI responses from waste authorities: - the
Code and scripts
The website for the project was generated in R using a process called parameterisation.
- Files for the website can be found in the
- R notebook: from the Google Sheet version for partners - which has two header rows - for use in R
- R script used in the notebook above:
- R notebook: which inserts data into a template script, generates an interactive table for all authorities in the region, and a chart for the authority
- R notebook: from that template for each authority
- R notebook: from the markdown files
- R notebook: to render the index page
- R notebook: to fix bugs such as redundant HTML and non-working menus, and split the menu
In addition, an R notebook was used to and create a flow chart to show the data processing.
Partner usage and other coverage
The story featured across the 成人快手 network including a package and outside broadcast for 成人快手 Breakfast, bulletins across national radio and phone-ins on Five Live and Jeremy Vine on Radio Two. It was also used across a number of regional outlets including 成人快手 London, where it was the lead story.