MBT Myths Exposed

Myths Exploded

Statements by the advocates of incineration often attempt to belittle alternative technologies like MBT, implying it is a marginal and unproven technology. This is simply not true.

There are, in fact, 24 MBT plants currently operating or planned in England. Many of the MBT plants have a capacity far in excess of what is needed in Gloucestershire. At 31 Mar 2010 the figure was 19, compared to just 18 municipal waste incinerators, shown by Environment Agency data. It is clear therefore that MBT is a well established and proven technology.

How Ironic!

As if this wasn't enough, it was announced in Jan 2012 that the very partnership chosen to construct Gloucestershire's Mass Burn Incinerator (Urbaser Balfour Beatty) has also been chosen by Essex County Council to build an MBT facility to deal with 417,000 tonnes of municpal waste a year in Essex.

So, the same companies that are to build an incinerator for Gloucestershire are instead to build MBT for Essex: better technology, much larger scale. "Why has Gloucestershire chosen incineration?" you might well ask. Incineration is clearly not required.

What better advocates of MBT than Urbaser Balfour Beatty themselves. Read here how they propose MBT as "the most appropriate residual waste treatment option" and more!

MBT in action

MBT operates as close to home as Bristol, where it is also being triumphed as a real success. Locate this and other MBT plants in England on our map below.

Map of MBT plants operating or planned in England at Feb 2012