Sita has announced plans for an incinerator in Granville, Telford, and it looks like the planning application will go in within the next 2 months (!) Read the report in the Shropshire Star, below.
This means that people living in a large area of North and East Shropshire now face suffering the effects of emissions from 2 incinerators. One can only speculate as to why Sita, which used to hold the waste contract for Shropshire is now proposing to rush through an incinerator planning application in Telford and Wrekin. Sita reportedly lost the contract in Shrewsbury because their waste management proposals for the county, which included an incinerator, were seen at the time as unacceptable. Subsequently the contract was awarded to Veolia, including - guess what?
Both these companies know that there will be a waste shortfall. Veolia claims that only municipal waste will be burned in the Harlescott incinerator with the shortfall being made up by 'similar' kinds of commercial waste. Since incinerators need to burn 24/7 to be efficient, how are 2 incinerators going to be kept fed - you work it out!
Keith Kondakor, an anti-incinerator campaigner from Mansfield has worked out that raising recycling rates to 70% could mean that incineration is never the cheapest option - despite the much-vaunted 'energy from waste'. Keith commented on the Star website:
'Telford and the Wrekin only recycle and compost only 35% of their waste. Almost all of the waste is recyclable (93.5% in one study) and if its not recycleable or compostable we should not be making it.
An incinerator just moves the problem from dirty hole in the ground to dirty air we breath. The first aim must be to massive reduce the amount we produce. There are then modern plants that can clean the waste before a small clean and safe residual is landfilled. They are building these types of plant in Norfolk and Lancashire.'
Shropshire Star Thursday April 3, 2008-04-07
Multi-million pound proposal for borough incinerator unveiled
Plan to Burn Town Waste By Peter Johnson
MULTI-MILLION pound plans to build an incinerator in Telford - which aims to tackle the borough's growing mountain of waste - wereunveiled today. The incinerator, planned for a site at Granville tip, on the outskirts of the borough, would be able to process 62,000 tonnes of non-recyclable rubbish every year. It would also create 17 new jobs if the plans were given the go-ahead. Bosses at SITA UK, a French-owned waste management company, and its partner Cyclerval, which are behind the plans, are expected to submit a planning application to Telford & Wrekin Council in the next twomonths.
A SITA UK spokeswoman would not reveal the exact cost of the borough plant but said it would run into "millions of pounds". Company chiefs said the "energy from waste" facility would provide electricity for homes and businesses across the borough. Geraint Rees, SITA general manager, said: "The proposed plant would not only provide a long-term-facility for treating residual waste following recycling, but also has the potential to support local businesses and secure jobs by providing affordable and reliable heatand power."
Outcry
The proposal is expected to create an outcry among public health andenvironmental campaigners who claim such schemes are potentially hazardous.
Telford Friends of the Earth has already expressed opposition to an incinerator, claiming it would produce potentially harmful fumes. Council bosses said the borough is running out of space for rubbish burial. It has significantly boosted recycling despite initial grumbles from householders. It faces hefty Government "fines" if it does not reduce landfill rates.
Councillor Steve Bentley, cabinet member for environment, said: "We are very keen that the whole issue of waste disposal is opened for consultation with the community at this very early stage. Supporters of burning rubbish say the latest generation of incinerators are a clean and cost effective way of dealing with waste and producing electricity. A possible alternative for Telford is mechanical biological treatment – sorting and processing waste, some of which would go to landfill and some for use as fuel.
BRITAIN'S DIRTY BUSINESS
'But secrecy seems to be about more than just defence. The evidence is that the department doesn’t want us to know what it’s thinking. ....... as the business principles involved are ethical outlines, they cannot be concealed as commercially sensitive'
In the Sunday Times magazine, 6 April, 2008, Brian Appleyard uncovers some very murky and environmentally damaging projects funded by the UK's Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD).
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3666273.ece
In the Sunday Times magazine, 6 April, 2008, Brian Appleyard uncovers some very murky and environmentally damaging projects funded by the UK's Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD).
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3666273.ece
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