Beddington Lane Power Plant broke its license 57 times between March 2019 and August 2024, including overproducing carbon Monoxide 23 times, according to Viridor, the waste management company’s own reporting.
There were also ten incidents of higher than permitted levels of sulphur dioxide.
The Beddington Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) burns household and business waste, and turns it into energy, instead of sending the waste to landfill.
The ERF produces energy by burning supposedly non-hazardous waste to create steam, which powers an electric generator turbine. The facility also provides low-carbon hot water to the Sutton Decentralised Energy Network (SDEN).
Viridor have a permit from the Environment Agency under the Industrial Emissions Directive.
Peter Underwood, from the Croydon Green Party, told EastLondonLines: “The incinerator seems to be allowed to mark their own homework. It’s up to them to report the breaches. Secondly, there’s no point in having limits if breaking the limits has no consequences.
“There are no fines, there are no punishments. They just report it and it’s like, okay, it’s recorded, and they carry it on and breach it again a few weeks later.
There needs to be some consequences for breaking the rules.”
Croydon, Sutton, Merton and Kingston Councils, via the South London Waste partnership, have a 25-year contract with Viridor to continue producing waste to burn.
Viridor, who run multiple plants across the UK have recently had to provide payouts of £1 million to residents affected by one of their other plants in Runcorn.
EastLondonLines asked Underwood if he thought that paying compensation to residents was a reasonable response from Viridor.
He said: “Giving people a couple of thousand pounds for poisoning them isn’t an appropriate response. Stop poisoning people is the appropriate response.”
A recent BBC examination has found that burning rubbish in incinerators is not eco friendly as once thought, but the UK’s ‘dirtiest’ form of power. The investigation found that these plants now produce as much carbon per unit of energy than as if they were burning coal.
BBC analysis also suggests the burden of the UK’s waste is disproportionately falling on deprived areas such as Runcorn or Croydon, which are 10 times more likely to have an energy-from-waste incinerator in their midst than in the wealthiest areas.
Source: WasteDataFlow, Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) (2019) via BBC
A spokesperson for Viridor told EastLondonLines: “Recovering energy from waste (such as at the ERF) is recognised within the UK Government’s waste hierarchy as a more environmentally sustainable and better option for residual waste when compared to landfill. Viridor works with its partners to promote the recycling and reduction of waste but recognises there is still material that is thrown away. “
The Environment Agency told EastLondonLines: “Beddington Energy Recovery Facility recorded minor breaches of its environmental permit conditions over the past few years. While these were extremely unlikely to have resulted in any environmental or human health impacts, we have instructed the operator to put measures in place to minimise the risk of these types of events happening in the future.”
EastLondonLines contacted Croydon Council for comment. They said it was a matter relating to the South London Waste Partnership.
EastLondonLines have contacted the South London Waste Partnership for comment. They responded, saying they would provide a comment before 4 pm on October 22, but provided no further update.
