Make SAF, not electricity from household waste, urges boss of UK’s largest airports group

The UK risks missing out on a significant opportunity to reduce its carbon footprint by continuing to incinerate household waste, rather than use it to make Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), according to a new study released today by MAG.

Every year, around 8.5m tonnes of household rubbish are burned to make electricity when items cannot be recycled or re-used, according to transport sustainability experts ICF. A further 7.3m tonnes are burned with no energy recovery at all.

Instead of being incinerated to make electricity, the same waste could be used to produce SAF at new refineries across the UK – giving airports a direct supply and creating tens of thousands of new green jobs. 

The research from ICF reveals that the reduction in carbon emissions from using bin bag waste to make SAF would be at least five times greater than that achieved by incinerating the same waste to generate electricity. 

It shows that SAF made from waste emits 89% less carbon than burning conventional jet fuel. This means that using waste to make SAF results in a much bigger reduction in carbon emissions than incinerating it to make electricity - because nearly 50% of all UK electricity already comes from renewable sources. 

The emissions saving of generating energy from waste is expected to get smaller and smaller – eventually reaching zero - as the UK works towards all its electricity coming from renewable sources by 2035. 

The research found that, if all the rubbish the UK currently incinerates was used to make SAF instead, the carbon saving would be equivalent to the emissions of at least 46 million people flying from London Stansted Airport to Madrid every year.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has given councils the green light to send the waste they collect to make SAF, with many disposal contracts due for renewal in the coming months and years.

That, according to MAG, offers an exciting opportunity to not only take the carbon out of flying, but to establish a SAF production industry here in the UK, with the potential to create up to 60,000 jobs.

Ken O’Toole, CEO of MAG – which runs Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports and commissioned the ICF study – said:

“It is proven that SAF has the capability to power the planes of the future and will be instrumental in the decarbonisation of air travel in the coming years.

“The benefits of turning household waste into SAF are clear – it’s better for the environment, reducing emissions by at least five times more than using it to make electricity.  It can also contribute to the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs and be a significant driver in helping UK aviation reach its target of net zero by 2050.

“It is vital that we use household waste in the most efficient way we can to help reduce carbon emissions. But the simple fact is, by continuing to incinerate waste to make electricity we’re missing out on an important opportunity to cut the UK’s carbon emissions.

“By using household waste to make SAF, we can scale up our domestic SAF production and ensure that air travel – which delivers so many economic and social benefits – remains affordable and on a path to net zero.”

Defra rules state that councils should prioritise disposal that enables so-called “municipal solid waste” (MSW) to be recycled or re-used. After that, it can either be sent to landfill or used to make energy or fuel.

According to ICF, 27.3m tonnes of MSW are collected in the UK each year, making it the most widely available domestic raw material to make SAF, ahead of agricultural waste.

Of that, 8.5m tonnes are used to make electricity, with a further 7.3m tonnes simply sent to incinerators without any energy being captured.

The research reveals that the reduction in carbon emissions from using bin bag waste to make SAF would be at least five times greater than that achieved by incinerating the same waste to generate electricity.

It  took a “best case” of electricity made from rubbish using an incinerator that not only produces power, but captures the heat at the same time, despite the fact many in use across the UK do not do both. It also assumed the non-biogenic content of that waste (ie oil-based products like plastic) was as low as 4%

It shows that turning one tonne of waste into energy would save 89 kilos of carbon (89kg CO2e) when compared with the average emissions generated when producing energy for the UK electricity grid. In 2022, 56% of UK electricity was produced from low carbon sources.

If the same tonne of waste was used to make SAF, there would be a 453kg CO2e saving compared to traditional jet fuel emissions.

This reduction is delivered because the carbon needed for SAF already exists within the economy. Therefore, it is produced without needing to extract additional fossil fuels.

Defra has confirmed that local authorities are free to choose fuel production over energy-from-waste and incineration but, under the terms of current disposal contracts, the amount of MSW that could be made available to new SAF plants is limited.

That means the US and Europe could win the race to secure investment in SAF production plants, with the creation of up to 60,000 high-value jobs in the UK at stake.

Industry coalition Sustainable Aviation (SA) has identified that as many as 14 SAF plants could be built across the UK, with the Government committed to having five under construction by 2025.

In 2021, Manchester Airport signed a landmark partnership with Fulcrum BioEnergy UK, which could make it the first UK airport to be directly connected to SAF production, providing up to 10% of the airport's fuel use.

The publication of the ICF research comes after the first transatlantic flight powered exclusively by SAF took off in November to New York from London. The UK Government has a mandate in place requiring 10% of the fuel used by airlines in the UK to be SAF by 2030.

SA’s most recent decarbonisation roadmap, published in 2023, sets out how aviation will decarbonise by 2050 and demonstrates how SAF will deliver 39% of aviation emissions reduction on the path to net zero. The creation of a thriving SAF industry in the UK is estimated to contribute £11bn to the economy.

Both major UK political parties have made pledges that electricity generation will be net zero by no later than 2035, meaning any practices that are carbon-positive will have to be phased out.