Environment and Health
Wheelabrator Technologies recognises there is a real debate about the environmental impact of energy from waste plants in the UK.
Each of the EfW plants we operate in the US meets every federal, state and local environmental standard - all of which are rigorously enforced. We are equally confident our technology and process will meet all EU requirements as regulated by the Environment Agency in the UK.
We acknowledge there are still some observers who see combustion-based energy from waste plants as being high polluters. However, if this ever was the case, the technology has moved on considerably, making such arguments moot. No less an authority than the Environment Agency refutes such criticisms in its recent briefing note on the subject, published on its official website.
The most recent review of all of the evidence on the health effects of combustion based EfW plants, considered 23 high quality studies of the patterns of disease around such plants and also four review papers. The report, published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), considered cancer, respiratory disease and birth defects and found no evidence of any link between the incidence of disease and the current generation of EfW plants.
At Wheelabrator Technologies, we are proud of our environmental track record and our commitment to health and safety, both inside and outside the plant. We pioneered many of the advanced environmental control technologies, procedures and applications that have gone on to set the standards across the sector.
This relentless focus on technical excellence extends beyond the emissions from the combustion process, all the way through to zero discharge from process water systems to protect ground water resources and even to looking for ways to eventually recycle combustion ash residue.
