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This Saturday members of Extinction Rebellion groups from across the East of England came together to make the local public aware of the incinerator on their doorstep. The Rivenhall Incinerator was built in Essex in 2025 by Belgium-owned Indaver, which has already been accused of greenwashing and is embroiled in controversy after failing to adhere to the site’s initial planning permission, which involved building recycling facilities adjoining the incinerator. Actions have been taken against the incinerator in the past but public awareness of the site remains low.

One person declared that, “Money is being paid to a foreign billionaire to burn our waste instead of doing what we can to recycle and investing in plastic free alternatives. It’s madness. […] When I spoke to Indaver in their open day and asked about if they could do any sorting of the waste that gets burnt – they said no because they can’t make a profit from it. I just don’t get how in this day and age the profit of a foreign multi-billion company is more important than what is being burnt going out to our schools, our fields, and affecting local people.”

Extinction Rebellion gathered at a regional level to raise awareness of the incinerator to the local population and to highlight the health and environmental concerns the site brings. In a two-part action Saturday 25^th April, a group of protestors and drummers gathered at the entrance of the Rivenhall Incinerator, carrying signs declaring “profit > health”, “profit B4 people”, and “they burn it, you breathe it”.

When asked why they were protesting, one participant who lives in the area said: “The people of Braintree and the villages around deserve to know exactly what they have on their doorstep. We don’t even know for sure what impact it could have on our countryside and our health; we are just left to find out in 10 or so years’ time!”

Another said, “We want people who see us today to be made aware of this site right on our doorstep and of how they can be involved in what is happening with the Incinerator moving forward. They have already breached safe levels of ammonia and particulate matter – who knows what else could happen? We want locals to know the risks involved of having this construction in their backyard.”

The action comes as the Incinerator has finished its commissioning phase and is now fully operational. Those in the group are concerned about particulate matter and ammonia levels during this phase and how toxic emissions will be monitored in the future – if they will even be monitored. The long-term impacts of incinerators on health and the environment is not fully understood by science, with some studies showing worrying possible outcomes for those living locally to a burn site.

The activists then reconvened in the town centre outside Braintree Town Hall, where they were visited by the XR Banshees, a haunting performative arts protest group, and engaged and informed the public, arming them with information about the Incinerator so they can keep up to date with developments. One protestor said, “Letting people make profit off our waste gives councils no intensive to support a circular economy, it is patching up a problem without fixing it. Today we want the people to know this.”