Are our councillors sleepwalking towards incineration?
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Waste |
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Incineration |
After all the studies and all the brave talk about doing the right thing with our waste - recycling etc - councillors may be 'sleepwalking' towards the wrong thing - incineration. They are being led by the siren voice of Mike Nicholls, director of 'West Waste'.
Letter to the papers
This letter summarises the issue.
Are our councillors sleepwalking towards long term incineration of our waste? At the last meeting of the West London Waste Authority, the director told councillors that a new waste disposal contract is needed, to begin by 2010. He said a draft contract had been written, with a fifteen year duration.
He also told councillors that if they were to advertise this contract now, there would probably be only one bidder, Grundon, who are building an incinerator in Colnbrook, Slough. Councillors listened to all this, then decided to notify the Mayor of London that they plan to go ahead and advertise a contract.
But this contract would go against the new waste strategy that they've just agreed. The strategy sets out a two stage process: the first stage is to provide waste disposal between 2010-2013, allowing time for stage two to be developed, for waste disposal 2013-2020 and beyond. This later stage would benefit from improvements in technology and the law that happen in the meantime, enabling us to reduce waste and recycle more of the valuable resources contained in it.
So what's happened to this two stage process? If we commit to a fifteen year contract with Grundon, we could be stuck with burning our rubbish for the whole period of the strategy. The director reassured councillors that they could in future transfer the contract to another council. But who will want to buy into old technology that is not even state of the art today?
West London Friends of the Earth warned of the dangers of a long term contract in our response to the waste strategy consultation, but this warning seems to have been suppressed from the published list of responses.
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Colnbrook incinerator |
Letter to the minister
Sparked off by this and similar issues around the country, national Friends of the Earth has written to the environment minister, David Milliband. Here is what the letter says.
We represent 30 [or so] communities from across England and Wales who have come together to form a network of groups committed to resisting both the expansion of incineration of mixed waste, and the production of Refuse Derived Fuel from mixed waste. 'Energy from waste' in the UK mostly means large, expensive, unsustainable, polluting and inefficient electricity-only incinerators.
We are working hard to stop new and enlarged incinerators in our
communities because:
* Incinerators emit trace pollutants that are hazardous to health,
particularly of children. On the latest EU air pollution analysis, the
health costs of PM 2.5 particulates from incineration are very
significant (contrary to outdated UK assessment).
* Incinerating waste rather than recovering the raw material is a huge
waste of resources, not just because of the requirement for replacement
materials, but also in terms of the considerable extra energy required
for processing new raw materials compared with recycled materials.
* Waste incinerators that supply electricity only and no heat are
highly inefficient and deserve the European classification as waste
disposal installations. All waste incinerators produce toxic grate ash
and fly ash, giving disposal problems and the risk of Byker-type
scandals.
* Many local authorities are performing poorly on recycling and limit
their plans because they are encouraged to go for the easy option of
incineration, instead of maximising re-use and recycling. They assume
annual growth in waste by 3% or more, yet Defra's own figures show
municipal waste dropping, by 3 per cent last year.
Yet our efforts - and the wishes of local communities - are being undermined by the Government's political and financial support for incineration. Ben Bradshaw recently asked local authority recycling groups "to take on the critics of energy-from-waste", yet his department has not responded to the analysis of our consultancy report ".." that disproves the incinerator industry claims to be a better disposal route than landfill and to help in combatting climate change.
The public strongly favour increased recycling and composting, and are able to express their sense of responsibility and personal contribution to improving the environment and combating global warming. Yet foisting incinerators on communities creates antagonisms and undermines the positive commitment that is necessary for maximising recycling.
We are therefore asking for the Government to withdraw support from mass burn and RDF burning incinerators.
We also ask the Government to introduce a tax on waste incineration, on the basis of the Customs and Excise Study (Combining the Government's Two Health and Environment Studies to Calculate Estimates for the External Costs of Landfill and Incineration, Dec 2004), which showed the climate change impacts of incineration were worse than those of landfill.
We hope the Government will listen to our concerns as it finalises England's waste strategy this winter and recognise that our communities will justifiably continue to resist the imposition of incineration. England and Wales.