The amount of waste being incinerated in Oxfordshire has raised pollution concerns among environmentalists.

Incineration is a treatment of waste where rubbish is burned and some electricity is generated. But opponents say it creates greenhouse gas emissions.

The amount of waste that has been incinerated in Oxfordshire has increased by 60 per cent between 2014 – 2023/24.

Oxfordshire County Council's figures show that in 2014/15, 65,000 tonnes of waste was incinerated and in 2023/24 it was 118,000 tonnes.

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In 2015/16  the energy recovery facility (ERF) at Ardley near Bicester became fully operational.

Figures for incineration have been stable at about 110,000 tonnes since then.

Energy recovery facility at Ardley near Bicester (Image: Damian Halliwell)

A spokesperson said: "Nothing about our ERF arrangement prevents us from maximising waste prevention, reuse, recycling and composting.

"Nationally recycling rates have plateaued and we are the best county in the country for this.

"Incineration is better than landfill for greenhouse gas emissions."

Chris Church, of Oxford Friends of the Earth, said: "The UK is very short of space for landfill for waste disposal and landfill sites generate a lot of methane which is a very serious ‘greenhouse gas’ that is contributing to climate change. Such sites also often contaminate local rivers.

"With that in mind ‘energy from waste’ plants that incinerate waste are in many ways the least worst option for all the waste that we cannot recycle."

He added that most of Oxfordshire’s non-recyclable waste goes to the Ardley plant which produces enough electricity for almost 60,000 homes.

Mr Church said: "The challenge for people in Oxfordshire is simply to recycle more. A lot of what gets burnt could in fact be recycled but is put in the wrong bin.

"We also need to try not to contaminate recyclable waste, for instance by putting food waste in with it. Too much waste that could be recycled gets burnt because of this."

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Greenpeace, a long-term opponent of incineration, said: "Plastic is almost entirely made from oil and gas. So burning it is essentially burning fossil fuels. In fact, for every tonne of dense plastic burned more than two tonnes of CO2 is released into the atmosphere.

"To make matters worse, global plastic production is set to triple by 2060. This means that, without a big change, the amount of plastic incinerated will also increase."

A spokesperson from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs said: “We are committed to cutting waste and moving to a circular economy so that we re-use, reduce and recycle more resources and help meet our emissions targets.

“We are considering the role waste incineration will play as we decarbonise and grow the economy.”

Viridor, which operates the ERF at Ardley, was contacted.