Group promises “fierce opposition” to new incinerators

The group has identified key battle grounds in Newhaven, Norwich, Mansfield, Hull, Cornwall, Peterborough, Leeds, York, Woking, Nuneaton, East London and Surrey concerning proposals for new energy-from-waste plants.

” It is particularly disingenuous for the government to promote incineration as a green way to produce energy.“
– Brenda Pollack, FoE
It claimed around half of these locations are already seeing plans “fought tooth and nail” by local communities, with a public consultation on the Newhaven proposal closing next Friday.

Friends of the Earth accused the government of locking local authorities into “into contracts to supply incinerators with a minimum level of waste for as many as 25 years”. It said “this ties their hands and prevents from using more efficient methods such as recycling – now and in the future.

Target
The group wants government to bring in a target to recycle 50% of municipal waste by 2010.

Friends of the Earth threw down the gauntlet following initial thoughts revealed from Defra's forthcoming consultation into a new government waste strategy for England (see letsrecycle.com story).

Brenda Pollack, Friends of the Earth campaigner in the South East of England said: “Incinerators are deeply unpopular with local communities and it's not hard to see why. As well as generating harmful emissions and increasing noise and traffic, incinerators undermine genuine solutions for dealing with waste.”

Ms Pollack added: “It is particularly disingenuous for the government to promote incineration as a green way to produce energy. Incinerators are extremely inefficient generators of energy producing more carbon dioxide per unit of energy then old-fashioned coal-fired power station. Incinerators are not the answer to climate change and they are not the answer to waste.”

Germany
Friends of the Earth said the UK should be more like countries like Germany and the Netherlands in pushing for high recycling rates. It pointed out that only 17% of household waste was recycled in England in 2003/04, compared to 53% in Germany and 59% in the Netherlands.

One waste sector analyst commented that the group appeared to have neglected to mention that in Germany incineration rates are currently of the order of 45%, while they have surpassed 35% in the Netherlands – compared to the UK's 12% current rate and projected rise to 25%.

Defending the use of incineration, Steve Lee, chief executive at the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, said it would be important in dealing with residual waste that is left over once everything possible has been done to minimise waste and to recycle.

Mr Lee said: “It’s good that the debate about energy from waste has come out into the open. Everybody needs to consider the role that this technology can play in producing much-needed energy and in helping to protect the environment from gases linked to climate change, as well as how it fits into the overall waste hierarchy.”