In October 2016, The Guardian presented the new Danish miracle to the world: “Incinerator with excellent views: The Copenhagen waste plant will have a ski slope and picnic area.” In the computer assembly you can see the futuristic fire in the middle of a place surrounded by ponds and lakes, which by chance does not have fireplaces. Since then, if Google requests images of the Amager Bakker incinerator, the first ones it finds are similar simulations, an impressive building under the snow, skiers on the roof, casting by the fireplace artistic hoops of vapor that we do not smoke...

When LKS representatives from Arrasate have tried to sell in Peru an incinerator such as Gipuzkoa to the local authorities, it is very likely that the new Amager Bakker will be mentioned. They've made it fashionable. Because what can have a better guarantee than an oven to which love is attributed in the Nordic countries? In Denmark, however, they are concerned.

In August the economic journal Finans published: “Millions of chaos in the new coastal building: Amager Bakke forces waste to accumulate in tons.” In June, the stoves were damaged just for the first time. The government authorized the company to accumulate waste in the pot, as one of the three fires had been repaired and the other two had been built for several weeks. A complicated problem, because almost half of those thousands of tons were made up of corrupt kitchen organics.

This summer fault has not been the first technical problem for the Pharaonic project which, in addition to being the greenest incinerator in the world [environment-friendly], has claimed that the roof has ski slopes. Last November, it was discovered that B&W Vølund, its main supplier, made serious technical errors, causing losses to the company amounting to EUR 100 million.

Murmur published in November 2016 the dirty white elephant of Copenhagen, in which he reported the headaches of the star project of the authorities of the capital. “It was said that it was going to set a milestone by combining contemporary architecture, leisure facilities and advanced treatment for waste. But Amager Bakk’s incineration plant, which needs a million euros per year, can become a burden for tax-paying citizens and can slow down other ecological strategies for waste.”

With its 85 metres in height, it is the second largest building in Copenhagen and, in addition to the waste burning facilities, it must have the three ski slopes, the climbing wall and the cafeteria completely finished. However, the biggest problem the white elephant had to have was what Murmur pointed out before the building ended: “The incinerator has the capacity to burn 500,000 tons per year, but among the five municipalities that own it they do not generate so much waste.” In the journal’s calculations, this could result in a deficit of 255 million euros between 2020, which citizens should pay with their taxes.

Aware of the danger, the authorities have authorised the incinerator to bring waste from abroad to the furnaces, up to 115,000 tonnes a year, one in five of what it burns. This decision does not comply with the waste import ban established in Denmark in 2012 when waste plans were discussed, but once the biggest costs have been incurred, the debt payment has exceeded the climate change arguments.

Hunger for English garbage

Amager Bakke is the incinerator, costing EUR 500 million, due to technical problems and delays that have been detected along the way, the most expensive of those built in Europe. But some Danish experts are of the opinion that the import of waste cannot be sufficient for their weak finances. Due to the problems of the world’s most fashion incinerator, the Engineer magazine recently titled it: “Can an incinerator go bankrupt? Yes, Svendborg has taught us how.”

In southern Denmark, the city of Svendborg brings together almost 60,000 inhabitants with its outskirts. The incinerator launched by the City Council in 1999 still carries debts worth EUR 12 million. It faces citizens’ taxes: while local councils pay EUR 54 per tonne for smoking, Svendborg is obliged to pay EUR 143 per tonne.

The Svendborg incinerator has strong competition in the waste market which the authorities have just liberalised. A kiln was built to burn 50,000 tons, but the city generates no more than 18,000 tons a year, and to quench the ovens and round the bills, you need to bring garbage from somewhere.

Denmark as a whole has too much capacity for incineration. From abroad, huge quantities of garbage are imported, in 2015 only from Britain 728,135 tons, 128 kg per Danish. In the case of Amager Bakke, some of the planners in 2012 warned of the situation, proposing the restoration of the former incinerator. But as explained in Murmur's chronicle, the promoters of the incinerator did a hard lobbying job, until the local and national leaders who were initially reluctant positioned themselves in favor of a new revolutionary and iconic plant.

“The European Union’s decisions on the circular economy – writes Christopher Nicastro in the November newsletter of Europe Zero Waste – are like a nightmare for Denmark’s incinerators. Less and less planned for smoking, Copenhagen’s shining new furnaces can have a much shorter extinction, increasing losses and generating economic burdens on citizens in the future.”

Denmark has today declared itself a champion of Europe's incineration, burning half of the waste generated in households and making recycling rates more difficult in return. As for the separation of the organic, Copenhagen is one of the 20 municipalities worst represented in the country. This year begins the special collection of organic. With this, and in general with Denmark’s decisions to increase recycling, the Amager Bakk furnace remains even less lined.

As the reader will have noticed, we have not mentioned a word about the toxins that the incinerator Amager Bakke is going to pour into the air, nor about the more than 100,000 tonnes it is going to generate. They seem to be relying on the guarantee of Nordic technology, even though the scandalous failures observed during its construction have sent more than one note on the reliability of the famous company Babcock & Wilcox. Even though we've seen Volkswagen fail its car emissions for years, we haven't yet learned how to do it. As in the case of VW, the incinerator is waiting for independent emission measurement researchers.