Southampton is incinerating 70 per cent of household waste

Over the past decade, the amount of material incinerated by the city council has risen by 12 per cent - putting it in the top ten of local authorities that burn huge amounts of rubbish.

During the same period the amount of Southampton waste sent to landfill sites or recycled has declined.

The figures have come under fire from environmental campaigners. An expert at a Southampton university described the situation as "insane", and Greenpeace has condemned the "shocking" increase in the use of burners.

Incineration is often seen as a cheaper and greener alternative to using landfill sites. (Image: Pixabay)

Greenpeace political campaigner Rudy Schulkind said: "Ultimately, this rise in incineration is just another symptom of a broken system that produces too much waste and overwhelms our recycling systems.

"The single most important thing the government can do is stop this problem at source and prevent so much waste being created in the first place.

"Only when we address runaway plastic production will the government be able to tackle our throwaway culture and move us towards the circular economy they speak so much about."

READ MORE: Plan to build new Hampshire incinerator rejected amid concerns over its visual and environmental impact

Incineration is often seen as a cheaper and greener alternative to landfill.

Large "energy from waste" facilities produce electricity for the National Grid. But environmental campaigners say they also pump out huge amounts of  greenhouse gases, plus harmful particles linked to disease.

The growing use of incinerators has sparked protests across the country (Image: Trevor Porter)

Ian Williams, Professor of Applied Environmental Science at the University of Southampton.

He said: "We have this insane situation where in England, we've already got more than 45 per cent incineration in most regions of the country, which means we can't possibly theoretically meet our recycling target the next year and we're planning to build more incinerators, which will take us further and further away from our own targets."

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United Kingdom Without Incineration Network (UKWIN) claims that burners harm recycling rates and worsen climate change.

Shlomo Dowen, UKWIN's national co-ordinator, said: "It's appalling that so much waste is being incinerated because much of that material could have been collected for recycling or composting instead.

"Incinerators not only waste valuable resources but are even worse for the climate than fossil fuels. For the sake of the environment Southampton City Council needs to do much more to divert this material away from incineration."

Incinerator operators include Veolia, which operates an energy from waste facility in Marchwood (Image: Newsquest)

Dr Dominic Hogg is an environment campaigner and founder of the environmental consultancy company Eunomia.

He said the growing use of incinerators "looks like a disaster", adding: "We should stop considering these things as power stations, because they're not good examples of power stations. Their principal objective is to get rid of waste."

Figures relating to the growing use of burners have been obtained by the BBC Climate and Science Team and its Shared Data Unit.

The BBC says 70 per cent of household waste collected in the Southampton city council area in 2022-23 was incinerated, compared to 58.5 per cent in 2015.

Only eight other local authorities burned more rubbish than Southampton in 2022-23. The highest figure was recorded by the London Borough of Lewisham, which sent 80 per cent of its household rubbish to incinerators.

Southampton City Council is incinerating 70 per cent of the household waste it collects in its area (Image: Newsquest)

Over the same period, the amount of household waste Southampton recycled or sent to landfill declined - with landfill use dropping to 4.3 per cent.

Nationally the amount of harmful greenhouse gases pumped out by England’s 52 main incinerators is reported to have jumped by more than 40 per cent in just five years.

A Southampton City Council spokesperson said: "The collection and disposal of household waste is delivered across Hampshire by an integrated waste management system.

"The system's strategic direction is co-ordinated by Project Integra, a partnership of Hampshire County Council, its 11 districts and unitary authorities Southampton City Council and and Portsmouth City Council.

"Energy recovery is preferred over landfill, in line with the waste hierarchy, significant cost and infrastructure-based challenges persist in achieving expanded recycling and managing harder-to-recycle materials.

"The council supports proposals for unified household recycling in England but faces delays in implementing measures like Simpler Recycling, pEPR, and DRS due to legislative uncertainty.

"Some legislation permits only incineration of certain hazardous wastes, for example Persistent Organic Pollutants."

Large amounts of household waste is being incinerated instead of being recycled or sent to landfill sites (Image: Supplied)

Many local authorities are locked into commercial contracts that require them to burn huge amounts of waste.

But the city council spokesperson said: "Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth do not have a PFI contract, and there has never been any fixed contractual tonnages to be met for incineration which would limit recycling."

Veolia operates an energy from waste facility site at Marchwood.

A Veolia spokesperson said the site produced electricity for 22,600 homes and also operated under strict regulations laid down by the Environment Agency.