As part of our work for Fornax Environmental Solutions, supporting the waste need argument for the planning appeal to the new High Temperature Incinerator, we interrogated the NHS ERIC data to look at trends on incineration and treatment.
During our investigations, we identified a potential issue with four organisations in the NHS trusts’ data. Following clarification with the NHS Digital team, the data was re-published. The headline? A lot less waste was incinerated than first thought, to the tune of nearly 45,000 tonnes, due to the trusts using kg in their returns rather than tonnes.
For the background graph comparisons visit the High Temperature and Clinical Waste Incineration page on Wikiwaste where we have posted more detail.
Initial graph showing the tonnage of NHS clinical waste incineration as a proportion of the total clinical waste incinerated – the jump in incineration from 2019 to 2020 initially seemed to be COVID related, but seemed to be high and not reflected in the overarching total tonnage incinerated figures (note the graphs show calendar years but the ERIC data is based on financial years)
The adjusted graph following the correction by ERIC for the three trusts with incorrect data – an over-reporting by some 45,000 tonnes. Note the total incineration figure has increased for non-NHS tonnage (e.g. care homes, private healthcare providers etc) and this was substantially absorbed by ‘MSW incinerators’ (we have put further detail on High Temperature and Clinical Waste Incineration)
The overall picture for the NHS, with the data adjusted for incineration and treatment, shows for 2019 to 2020 a net drop in incineration (9%), a growth in overall arising (6%) and growth treatment (18%)
