National group Friends of the Earth has told letsrecycle.com that while its anti-incineration work is reduced because there are fewer incinerators currently being proposed, it is keeping up its lobbying for more recycling.
Published last month, Defra's health study effectively vindicated the incineration of waste from claims it is harmful to human health (see letsrecycle.com story).
Despite the evidence laid out in the health study, GAIN is continuing to oppose incineration in Surrey, and is now pushing the South East England Regional Assembly to rule out incineration from its Regional Planning Guidance.
GAIN's chairman Colin Matthews told letsrecycle.com today that the evidence presented in the health report was not conclusive. “I think I was most interested to see the final page of the study, that the Royal Society was very cautious about the outcome of the study, saying it was difficult to draw conclusions,” he said, referring to the peer review of the study carried out by the Royal Society.
Mr Matthews said the peer review had pointed out that there were some inherent “uncertainties” in the data used for the health study, and he added that the caution expressed by the Society is also reflected in general public opinion.
FoE
Meanwhile, the national environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth has said that it has now changed its campaign strategy slightly in the waste arena.
Georgina Bloomfield, FoE's recycling campaigner, said: “We have been changing to work more on recycling and push further up the hierarchy. In the past we did have a more visible campaign against incineration and that has diminished a bit.”
Friends of the Earth is still very much against the use of incineration, but Ms Bloomfield said it now wants to promote the recycling of materials by stating that they do not need to be incinerated.
“There are reasons why we do not want incineration other than just health,” she explained. “It is a waste of material resources and that has always been our angle on incineration.”
GAIN
Despite coverage of Defra's health study in the national press, the Guildford group still insisted that health concerns remain among the public at large concerning the recovery of waste through incineration. GAIN wants the South East Regional Assembly to remove 27 sites it has proposed for new waste incinerators from its Regional Planning Guidance.
Mr Matthews explained: “It is shocking that SEERA is still advocating this outdated and unnecessary technology. Residents clearly want an incinerator-free approach based on recycling and composting which SEERA's own waste strategy confirms is feasible.”
More than 81,000 objections have been raised by the public in Surrey to incineration, he said, adding that in SEERA's own consultation on its waste strategy last year 71% of 1,746 responses were opposed to incineration.
Instead, GAIN advocates enclosed composting and mechanical biological treatment to process residual waste, with any stabilised end product being landfilled.
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